W. McCall Calhoun, a local Americus lawyer who was arrested after entering The Capitol on January 6 recently received a pardon from President Donald Trump. The pardon cleared him of four misdemeanors. The D.C. Court of Appeals had previously vacated a felony judgement against him. Calhoun is back in Americus, and his fire arms were recently returned. He is still waiting on the Georgia Supreme Court to decide whether or not to end the suspension of his law license.

Calhoun states suspension of a law license is standard practice after receiving a felony conviction. Even though he was found not guilty of a felony, Calhoun states it still could impact their decision.

While he is still waiting to see if he can resume practicing law, in other ways Calhoun’s life has returned to normal. “Everybody I’ve run into has been totally supportive. I’ve had so many people thank me.” His current life stands in sharp contrast to the picture he paints after his arrest.

Calhoun described moving from one holding facility to another. “That’s called diesel therapy, where they’re moving you around all over the Country so nobody knows where you are.” He listed seven different holding facilities. He refers to the final destination as; “the D.C. Gulag”.

There he was locked in a small cell for 23 out of 24 hours a day, with the remaining hour to make phone calls, shower, exercise, and socialize. When asked how he coped with the confinement, he replied; “I read the entire Bible.” When asked how others coped, he replied; “Everybody there knew that we were on the right side of history.” Calhoun plans to write a book about his experiences.

Calhoun still defends his actions, stating everything he did in The Capital was on video. “Walking is not a crime.” According to an Affidavit that was posted on the Department of Justice website, Calhoun made a post claiming that; “The first of us who got upstairs kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door and pushed down the hall towards her inner sanctum, the mob howling with rage- Crazy Nancy probably would have been torn into little pieces, but she was nowhere to be seen-then a swat team showed, and we retreated back to the rotunda and continued our hostile take over of the Capitol building.”

Calhoun had alluded to the post in a prior interview. He claims it was satire. “Everything that I did in The Capitol was on video.” He describes the post as a narrative statement. “I walked by. I saw the door was open. I had heard somebody kicked it in. I did not see anybody kick it in. I certainly did not kick it in.”