Defiant January 6th attendee responds to guilty verdict
A January 6th attendee who refused to enter a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office was convicted on all charges Tuesday and faces up to 24 years in prison.
While he committed no violence or vandalism on that day, former America’s Frontline Doctors director John Strand was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. He was also found guilty of four misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
“Mr. Strand’s conduct at the Capitol with [America’s Frontline Doctors Founder Dr. Simone Gold] that day was entirely peaceful as captured on closed circuit TV and social media video and is detailed in a prior AFLDS press release from June 16th,” said America’s Frontline Doctors in a statement. “As two of the charges include the requirement of ‘disorderly’ and Mr. Strand’s peaceful behavior was captured on videotape, it is clear that the jury disregarded the evidence.”
But despite the bleak – yet not unexpected – verdict, Strand has no regrets and promises to continue the fight.
“I am at peace; I am innocent, and I am blessed, grateful, committed, and hopeful,” Strand told America’s Frontline News. “I will appeal every charge as relentlessly as I fought against the initial false accusations. God is my only true judge; He will vindicate me. I place my entire life, physical and spiritual, in His hands.”
Strand has so far been the only January 6th attendee to refuse to plead guilty to the charges.
"I’ve had enough of the injustice and outright evil being perpetrated on the American citizen,” Strand wrote on his website explaining his decision. “I will not bend the knee to tyranny, I will not subjugate myself with a fraudulently mandated face hijab or a poisonous clot shot, and I will not bear false witness by confessing to crimes I did not commit.
“I will not remain conveniently quiet as a Marxist mob screams lies about an ‘insurrection!’ that was, in truth, a federal entrapment tool—a deception exploited to destroy innocent lives.”
Strand will face sentencing on January 12, 2023 by Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper, a member of the D.C. Democratic elite who has knowingly propagated disinformation about January 6th. When sentencing Dr. Simone Goldfor trespassing on Capitol grounds, Cooper chastised the civil rights activist for not being remorseful “about the five people who died that day,” a falsehood often repeated by the media. Only two people died during the demonstrations on January 6th, both of whom were Trump supporters: Roseanne Boyland who was beaten to death and Ashli Babbitt who was shot at close range by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.
Cooper, who stands accused of misogyny and racism, also refused to recuse himself despite having propositioned Dr. Gold in law school.
