Citizen groups sprang into action after Trump issued the pardons and commutations he had promised. Operation Airlift was launched.
With a stroke of the presidential pen, people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach were free. Many had no idea how they would get home.
After President Donald Trump signed pardons and commutations on Jan. 20, an estimated 300 people were released from 75 prisons in 35 states, according to Gary Heavin, a Texas philanthropist who raised funds for an operation to meet each of the prisoners and help them get back home.
“Everyone was scrambling to make sure there were people at the gates of these prisons” to welcome the former prisoners and help them with basic needs, Heavin told The Epoch Times.
The volunteers ensured that the ex-prisoners “were warm and fed, with a hotel to go to, and a phone to reconnect to their families,” he said. Volunteers also provided transportation, including commercial airline tickets or flights via private jets, including one that Heavin owns.
These volunteers and the people they helped told The Epoch Times that emotions overflowed as they shared time together. They described relief that the prisoners were freed and could return home. But they also decried how the U.S. justice system handled the Jan. 6 cases and expressed concern over the continuing challenges that the ex-prisoners face.
“There were bad actors on Jan. 6. But whatever stupid things they did—like breaking glass or turning a table over—four years in prison covers it, not 21,” Heavin said. “If we care about injustice, then we have to care about these people.”
After Trump won the Nov. 5, 2024, election, the volunteer groups began planning for pardons and commutations, Heavin said. Trump had campaigned on promises to free the Jan. 6 “political prisoners.” But no one knew if—or when—the order would come.
Within hours of his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences of serious offenders and pardoned the remaining 1,569 people.
The volunteers then set their plans in motion. Heavin and a second Texas pilot, Joe Heartsill, spent 2 1/2 days executing Operation Airlift. From Jan. 21 to Jan. 23, they flew about 20 of the newly released home; Heavin and his wife, Diane, say their plane traversed 8,000 miles.
By Janice Hisle
