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On Monday, the four-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, members of the self-proclaimed “J6 community” gathered at a Washington hotel ballroom to lionize those who had stormed the Capitol and to rail about the “civil rights abuses” Jan. 6 defendants faced as “political hostages.”

Pardons were not sufficient, speakers at the event argued. Those who had committed criminal acts at the Capitol deserved restitution.

At the event advertised as “The Official January 6 Pardon Press Conference,” the crowd swarmed with QAnon radio hosts, boxers, social media influencers, conspiracy theorist journalists, Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne, and prominent figures associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Actual Jan. 6 defendants spoke of the hardship they said they faced in the criminal justice system. A number of people choked up during their speeches.

The tone of the event was intensely aggrieved, and it revealed the sinister scope of the alternate narrative that the “J6 community” has pushed—and will continue to aggressively push—about that day. Trump may have won the election, but for the sake of modern politics, this cohort is not going to let the Jan. 6 defendants be remembered as the aggressors.

Instead of the rioters being the source of the violence, it was the police who were the attackers. Instead of storming the Capitol as an act of defiance, the rioters either innocently ended up there through ignorance of the law (“it’s the people’s house”) or were entrapped, ushered in by the Capitol police. Instead of trying to overturn a democratic election with force, the rioters were simply and reasonably asking........

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