Commission Six Eight
Covering today's politics and current events through the lens of history and the Bible.
Commission Six Eight
From Viral Photo To Federal Case: Adam Johnson’s Story
A single photo can swallow a person’s whole story. We sit down with Adam Johnson—instantly branded the “Lectern Guy”—to unpack the hours before and after that picture, the decisions he made in a fast-moving crowd, and the legal whirlwind that followed him home before his phone could finish rebooting. From the rally’s upbeat mood to the shift on the Capitol’s west front, Adam walks us through two converging crowds, the first pepperball bursts, and why open doors felt like an invitation to a protest he’d never experienced before.
Inside, he says most people kept to the ropes, looked up at the dome, and recorded what they saw. He moved the lectern for a photo, left it on-site, and later watched a felony theft charge stick anyway, despite CCTV showing it never left the building. We dig into the arrest, the weekend in county, the plea to misdemeanor trespass, and the five-year restriction on profiting from the story. We also tackle the media’s role in shaping guilt by thumbnail and the pushback he faced for hiring strong counsel, raising bigger questions about due process, venue, and narrative gravity when a case becomes a symbol.
The conversation turns deeply personal as Adam talks about telling his kids the stakes, offering his wife an out, and hearing her choose vows over fear. A presidential pardon arrived too late to change his record or time served and came as a printable PDF, a gesture he calls diminished yet acknowledged. Today he’s focused on paying off six-figure legal fees through his book and merch on unlicensedfurnituremovers.com and on policy advocacy in Florida to make sex education opt-in, centering parental consent. Whether you agree with his politics or not, this is a rare start-to-finish account that challenges assumptions about protests, policing, and how a viral image becomes a life sentence in the public mind.
Listen, compare sources, and decide for yourself. If this conversation gave you context you couldn’t find in headlines, follow the show, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
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SPEAKER_05:Spiral and mention has become the symbol of the violent quiet that we go to the capital black gentleman.
SPEAKER_06:Alright, well, today we have a very special guest, Adam Johnson, also known as the Lectern Guy. Hey, how are you doing? Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. And uh first, let's just um tell us who you are.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, my name is Adam Johnson. I'm known colloquially on the internet as the Lectern Guy or the Podium Guy or Viagetty. Uh accused of uh being a violent insurrectionist a few years ago. Since then, pardoned by the president and just uh enjoying my time online.
SPEAKER_06:Well, let me ask you this. Uh the lectern, first of all, what's the difference between a podium and a lectern?
SPEAKER_03:I get this a lot. So a podium is something that you stand on, a lectern is something you speak behind.
SPEAKER_06:And did you coin the term the lectern guy, or was that given to you?
SPEAKER_03:That's uh that moniker was assigned. So initially it was via Getty. There was a journalist who um saw that the image that was taken was done by Getty Images, and when they give credit, they say via Getty or from Getty. And so people thought my name was Via Getty. And then that lasted for a couple of days, then it was the podium guy, and then the internet corrected people, it's not a podium, it's a lectern. So the lectern guy was then birthed. That is my online given moniker.
SPEAKER_06:Well, you own it well, right? So uh I know you have a book called Take a Stand, which, by the way, great name, excellent name. I'm a I'm a big fan of naming things. Coming up with some I mean, great name. It practically wrote itself, right?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I read it online a couple of times, you know, went back and forth what the name should be, but taking a stand is definitely uh the right name for it. I think it's got a lot of uh oh a lot of a lot of double meaning to it. So do you have uh you have a copy of it? I do. Uh I have it in paperback. Very clean edition here, and I also have it in hardcover. And you can purchase these on my website. The website is called unlicensed furniture movers.com.
SPEAKER_06:Unlicensed furniture movers.com. So we're going to uh later on in the show, we're gonna I'm actually gonna purchase one of those books and give it away to a listener. Um and I'm gonna purchase one for myself as well. I'm very interested to read it. I haven't read it yet. Also, uh my producer, he actually he's a huge fan, first of all. He wanted to be on the show. Um, I I didn't let him because that's that's that's not his job. But he wanted to be here to ask you questions. But he wanted me to ask you, and we're gonna get into it, we're gonna hear your story, but it was Nancy Pelosi's lectern, right?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, that is that is what they say, but technically it was purchased through tax dollars Americans. That lectern is then you know used by whoever the speaker of the house is at the time. So it's been around for a long time to say it was Nancy's is kind of a misnomer. It belongs to the people.
SPEAKER_06:Well, he wanted to know if it uh when you picked it up, did it smell like vodka? Or was it was there was there like a place where she kept vodka or I did no secret compartments. No secret compartments.
SPEAKER_03:Nope, nope. There was a highest stench of lacquer, not liquor.
SPEAKER_06:All right. Well, okay, so before we get into your story, uh, you are a father of five, correct?
SPEAKER_03:I am five sons.
SPEAKER_06:Five sons. Excellent. I'll I'll love to first of all, thank you for raising young men. There's not enough dads around raising strong young men. Uh my last episode was actually about uh the falsehood of toxic masculinity and how fathers and no fathers in home lead to weak men. So thank you for that. And that's got to be a lot of energy running around the house.
SPEAKER_03:It's uh, you know, I I I describe parenthood as a uh as a as a constant uh rebuilding and transitioning of yourself into becoming what they need as they grow. You know, being a parent changes from the years when they're zero to five, where they need a lot of um a lot of guidance and a lot of, you know, they don't really have personal autonomy yet. They act like they do, but they don't. It's our job to keep them safe and secure and raise them. And then as you move on as a parent, you know, you transition from what they need. And as they become older and older, it becomes less of, I'm telling you what to do to, you know, I can give you advice if you ask for it. But, you know, if you do a good job in the first 13, 14 years of their lives, you know, they're asking less questions, just making better decisions.
SPEAKER_06:Amen. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, the word tells us that raise up a child in a way he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. A lot of times we think that means the whole time he won't depart from that. And I'm sure you have great sons, I'm sure they're doing great things, but uh keep up the good work. So let's jump into uh your story. And I want to start with uh how did you how did you decide to go to DC? I know I saw it on Rival Live on the news. I didn't even know that that was happening. So tell us about that.
SPEAKER_03:Well, um post 2020, I was uh pretty apolitical. Maybe libertarian is the best way to describe my my beliefs and viewpoints on the government and you know how things should work at large. And, you know, raising five kids, having five sons. I saw Trump one uh 16. And part of my politics was I'm a non-interventionalist, don't really like war, don't think that my kids should have to fight for you know foreign allies across you know the oceans. And Trump gave us, you know, no new wars. He actually got us out of wars. So it was a big reason why I got on the jump train. And we had some predictions that if you know Biden had won the election, we would see that same machine start up again. So listened to some podcasts, you know, learned some stuff, really got more invested in it because I believe that, you know, you can't just sit back and expect things to get better from the sidelines. You have to actually be proactive and understand what's going on. So, in that, um, I'd never been to a Trump rally in my life. I did vote for him in 16 and in 20 and in 24. And I decided, you know, I would go to my first and only Trump rally in DC. I thought it was, you know, the last of the last of last hurrah, last one to see. So we bought some plane tickets to go there and went there with a friend and showed up to the first Trump rally. It's kind of a very impetuous decision, kind of spurred the moment. We bought tickets maybe a week and a half before January 6th.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Uh so spared a moment, but that I mean changed your life forever, right? Yeah. Talk about uh two paths. So once you showed up, once you got there, what was what was the attitude like? What just walk me through um the beginning versus going to the Capitol? What was the atmosphere?
SPEAKER_03:I always say it's uh it's almost akin to going to some type of uh fair, you know, some type of local fair without the rides and cotton candy. There were still street vendors, hot dogs, things like that. But the the uh the ambiance, the the demeanor of the people were just kind of happy, uh jovial, even though that day we were, you know, watching what we believed our country being stolen from us. But there was still a very positive energy in the crowd, still a very, you know, positive atmosphere. And we watched a bunch of people give speeches down by the Washington Monument. And it what was hanging in the air was almost a sense of optimism, where even if things did transpire the way that we knew they were going to transpire, which was, you know, the election was over and Biden was to put into office, we still had hope that our country would one day be restored. And us being there, sharing our voices and just being collective in DC was a way to show the rest of our brothers and sisters across the nation and the world that we're not going to go quietly into the night.
SPEAKER_06:So, yeah, and it it's it's important to have that voice, and it's important, and you would say everything was peaceful up until possibly it wasn't, but before the Capitol, everything was peaceful. Did let me ask you this: did you notice anyone in the crowd trying to instigate anything before uh the Capitol?
SPEAKER_03:Uh not at the monument, not where Trump was uh speaking through um you know from the White House log on the screen, not from when all of these speakers were on stage. No one that no one was there to cause any actions of violence or commit any types of treasonous behavior. And it's I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the Capitol is actually being sieged and fences were actually being taken down while Trump was still speaking. So the population at the monument watching at that rally had nothing to do with the initial you know breach of Capitol grounds.
SPEAKER_06:So you had two different sections, it was two different crowds of people.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:That's see, and that's why it's so important uh telling the story. I that's something I never knew. Two different crowds of people. So then at some point, crowd from the monument goes to the Capitol.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And it's important to also note that there was a scheduled rally at the Capitol that day as well on the books. So this was not some impromptu group of people that showed up. There was a scheduled rally to be held at the Capitol. Now, the planning of that is difficult to unpack and look into because anyone can say we're gonna host an event and alert people and schedule something. But when those two crowds merged, you have to understand the crowd that was already at the Capitol had already started their walk onto Capitol Grounds and, you know, pushing through gates and fences. And there were police officers who were opening up those fences that were laid out to block a couple of sidewalks, and there were some people who did stupid things. But as far as the crowd that was at the monument, we marched slowly, walked slowly from the Capitol a couple miles down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. By time we got there, things had already popped off.
SPEAKER_06:Right. So, and just so you know, this is my show is not a conspiracy theory show. I don't like to chase rabbit holes, but there was something recently, I'm sure you saw, uh, a reporter asking Nancy Pelosi about about the Capitol. So what do you what are your thoughts on that? If you if do you think she had something to do with it? Do you think possibly this was a setup?
SPEAKER_03:I try not to conspiracy theory myself, a rabbit hole too much. I I have a two-week uh two-week rule of thumb where if I see something happen in the news, I wait for everyone to talk about it, try to assess everyone's opinions, and then try to, you know, give my opinion afterwards because I like to hear all sides.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Nancy Pelosi had an option to call in the National Guard. They were there the night before. I saw them on January 5th, posted up all over DC. They were already present. Um, there's an interview that she did inside of an SUV where she said, this is our responsibility. The National Guard should have been there. She had full autonomy to make this happen and power to make this happen. And she did not. We now know that there were over 200 plus FBI agents that were there, and that is additional to the uh confidential informants that they had there. This is not including DHS, ICE agents, um uh ATF agents, anyone who actually works and participates in DC as their vocation. So we know that there was probably somewhere between 200 and 500 people in that crowd who were sent there. And that takes planning. That is not impromptu, you know, assignment. That is, that takes plans. That takes, you know, getting emails people sent out. So do I think that it was a you know an FBI coup to to over the Capitol? I wouldn't go as far as to say that it was planned, but I would go as far as to say that it was within the realm of if this happens, there is a plan to facilitate and allow it.
SPEAKER_06:Right. Yeah, and I think it's a lot murkier than that. I don't think it's as simple as uh there was this side and there was that side, or it was, you know, let's set it up and watch it happen. I think there's a lot of intricacies, there's a lot of nuances in the story. Um, so now we've moved from the Washington Monument, now we're at the Capitol, right? You walk upon the Capitol. Tell me what happens next.
SPEAKER_03:So we walk up to the Capitol, and there must have been about a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand people there. I've never seen that many people in my life. And I'm on the west side of the building, the east side of the building also has about the same amount of people. And when we walk up there, everyone's just standing around. Um, there's probably 50, 60 uh police officers standing around in a semicircle on the west face of the building. And, you know, there's a hundred plus thousand of us standing um juxtaposed to them. And we're standing around singing the uh national anthem. There's a video of this, and then from the police line, pepperballs and gas start raining down on us. There's videos of Capitol officers and Metropolitan Police actually saying that they don't have the authority to do this. This is not the correct response, but they did it anyway. So at that point, as we are pepperballed and we are gassed and congustion grenades are going off, um, I'm I'm standing in a crowd of probably 60, 70 people, two or three rows back from the police line, and these canisters start hitting at our feet, probably two, three feet away from me. And when these things go off, um, there is this intrepid action that happens where if you were to detonate something in a crowd of people in the middle of it, you're gonna have outward expansion from the center out, which caused the people in front of us to go towards the police, which we now see on videos saying, you know, this is when they started rioting. And it's like, well, they had nowhere to go. They were literally exploding canisters of gas at our feet. So it would push people towards the police. And that's when the riot that we see all the videos ensued.
SPEAKER_06:Right. So you so that response by the police from your perspective, you'd say that's that's preemptive.
SPEAKER_03:The canisters of gas, that's yes, we were standing around. There was no assault on police officers, as far as I saw when I was there. Again, 200,000 people are there. It's a very large building, very large grounds.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I liken it to if you're at a football game, you know, and most stadiums hold between 50 to 70,000 people. If someone across from the stadium is in a bathroom, you know, beating the tar out of someone, you have no idea that's going on.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So to say that anyone, you know, had any idea that police officers are being assaulted, or that everyone had an idea that police officers are being assaulted is a misnomer. It's it's actually a falsehood. So where I was standing, people were standing around, and then they gassed and bombed us. So that's what happened afterwards.
SPEAKER_06:And then that causes a reaction. You know, the you telling the story, this reminds me, there's a great book. Uh, it's called The Guns of August, and it's about the lead up to World War One, like the six months, and then the first six months of World War I. And there's a theme throughout uh the book that all these countries and all these players were acting preemptively based on what they thought was about to happen, which escalated into the Great War, right? It's it sounds like the same thing was taking place. Um, whether those officers were purposely agitating, I don't I'm not saying that, or if they were just reacting to what they thought was about to happen. It's um but as we saw, it it it seemed to so anyway, I'll let you I'll let you continue.
SPEAKER_03:So um as those canvas came out, as those visions came out, um, I got gassed myself because you know, when they go off, it's a big cloud that goes up. And I had no desire to be a part of that, so I walked away from that. There was some scaffolding. I climbed that, took some videos, some pictures from the top, kind of just to get a bird's eye view of oh my gosh, this is this is crazy what's going on. Um, as I come downstairs from the scaffolding again, uh near the west side of the building, I see people that are just walking inside open doors. And me, I've never been to a protest before, never been to a rally. I've seen the Capitol being protested in before and after January 6th. My national conclusion was the protest is going inside, they're open doors. I'll follow the protest inside.
SPEAKER_06:Will you were you being waved in by cops? I know we've heard stories of cops actually police officers waving people in.
SPEAKER_03:No, I didn't see any cops waving us in. I just saw people walking in, so I followed suit.
SPEAKER_02:Followed the door.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, there were a lot of officers that were inside the building when we walked inside, and no one there was telling us to leave. No one there was telling us you can't be here, at least in the crowd that I was in. And again, my experience is different than a lot of other people. Sure. I was in a group about 1600 people, but of the people that I was with, maybe 40 or 50 had the same experience I did.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and something that's interesting that the picture, right? The famous picture, you hold an electron, y'all are actually inside the ropes.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_06:Like use, you know, supposedly storm the Capitol, but use the sidewalk, you know, like stay with inside the ropes.
SPEAKER_03:The majority of people who were in the Capitol were extremely respectful. Um, we walked through uh a narrow hallway and then it opens up to the rotunda. And when it opened the rotunda, everyone kind of stopped what they were doing and just started walking around taking pictures, looking at the opulence and the history that's painted on canvas and in friezes and the dome. And it was very respectful. And that was the group that I was in. Um the lectern, and we should talk about that. Uh, there was the idea that I stole this thing, that I broke down Nancy Pelosi's door, and I took it from her private stairs and private or private stash and wares, and that is not what happened. This lectern was sitting out in the open. It was not in some secure place. I picked it up, I moved it 30 yards for a picture with it because I thought it would make a great picture in the rotunda, and I left it there. Never took it home with me, but that was the uh that was the insinuation by every media organization worldwide.
SPEAKER_06:Right, and you were you were charged for that, correct.
SPEAKER_03:Felony theft.
SPEAKER_06:Felony theft, even though you never took it.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and even though they knew I never took it, there is CCT uh TV footage that they had day of, day after, every single day up until I was charged, they had evidence of this. There was a news story the very next day. Um, there's a video of them walking out the lectern. It never left the building and they knew this, and they still charged me with it.
SPEAKER_06:So we moved the lectern. Now you're charged with felony theft. It's amazing. Um, was that your first time in the Capitol?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Actually. So I I I watched another interview you did. You were doing a Capitol tour. Is that right?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Uh yes. So that day I was just taking a walk around. I'd never been there. I actually got lost in the building because it's a very large building. And I actually asked an officer, hey, how do I get out of here? I have no idea how to leave. And he was super polite. And he's like, Oh, we're exiting people down the way. Uh, you know, follow this hallway, take a right, walk about 20 yards, and you'll see an exit.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so you leave. So then at that point you leave. So how how much time were we in the Capitol? Twenty uh 20 minutes, an hour, half hour?
SPEAKER_03:They say uh 20 to 25 minutes somewhere in there.
SPEAKER_06:20 to 25 minutes, and then you're walking where?
SPEAKER_03:Uh leave the east face to the building, uh, go down some stairs, and I walk all the way back to Georgetown where my hotel is.
SPEAKER_06:And this is this is the part I'm very interested to hear. So when did the realization set in?
SPEAKER_03:So uh my phone had died inside. It was a long morning. Uh I had it on some battery packs recharging in my backpack. And uh when I got about 10-15%, powered it on, and my phone became unusable because when I turned it on, messages, messages, phone calls, DMs, I mean every app that I had from you know, Facebook, Instagram, uh messaging was just blowing up. I could not make calls because things were still downloading. So I put it in airplane mode, read through a few things, and I was like, oh, everyone knows what happened. And if that wasn't bad enough, about 20 minutes after I was got done looking through those things on the way to Georgetown, there was a couple uh riding their bicycles who stopped mid-sidewalk, pointed at me, and said, That's the guy from the Capitol. So I was being ID'd within 20 minutes of leaving the Capitol in public.
SPEAKER_06:Wow. Before you even knew. That's wild. So then you get back to the hotel. I mean, that must have been I can only imagine. You know, that must have been the feelings, the rush.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. I uh called my wife and she said, What have you done? I'm like, it's gonna be fine. I walked to the Capitol and I left. And she's like, Have you seen the news? There's pictures of you, people are texting me, my work, my work is getting threats. And I said, Well, let me call some of my Leo friends and see if we can't figure out how to find a quick solution to this.
SPEAKER_06:So then, um so then this eventually leads to your arrest?
SPEAKER_03:It does. Uh, before I left DC, I actually contacted the Department of Justice because I'd been named online. Uh, they knew where I lived, and I said, listen, I'm going home. Left a message, I'm going home, I'm not fleeing from anything. Here's my number, here's my address. If you guys need anything, give me a call. You know, thinking, you know, this is a misunderstanding. Well, we can talk about this. It's my government. They're not gonna, you know, prosecute me for walking through a public building and going home. Uh I hired attorneys the next day on the drive home, and by Friday, two days afterwards, I was on my way to county jail for three charges: felony theft, misdemeanor, violent entry, and misdemeanor trespassing.
SPEAKER_06:So they came and picked you up? They came to your house?
SPEAKER_03:No, we were able to be I had very good attorneys to the tune of$100,000. Um, and we worked it out to where I could self-surrender to my local county jail.
SPEAKER_06:So, yeah, you brought up your attorneys. Uh, Chris Cuomo.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_06:Uh Chris Cuomo, if correct me if I'm wrong, believed that you didn't deserve the right to a defense, or didn't deserve the right to that defense?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, to that defense specifically. Um, my attorneys did an interview, I want to say it was Friday or Saturday night with Chris Cuomo when he was still working with um whatever hack new organization he was working with. And he grilled them saying, Why do I deserve those attorneys? Two high-profile attorneys who would give me the best defense possible.
SPEAKER_04:His attorneys are David Bigney and Dan Eckhart, and they join us now. Gentlemen, thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Chris, thank you very much. Greatly appreciate you giving us the opportunity to speak about our client, uh Adam Johnson.
SPEAKER_04:Uh now, Dan, you have uh a very prestigious pedigree. Uh, you're a federal prosecutor, you're a federal agent. Everybody has a right to a defense. They don't have a right to you as counsel. Why does this man deserve your level of defense?
SPEAKER_03:And this stands against our constitutional rights to have the right to a defense. And if you look at a lot of the people who had been charged by the DOJ AUSA, they were given court-appoint attorneys out of DC where they were forced to be charged, which is also, I believe, a constitutional infraction. And some of these attorneys said things like, we're representing short bus people. I mean, this was the defense these people had. And on top of this, they weren't allowed to crowdsource for better attorneys as well. I wasn't allowed to crowdsource for better attorneys. Well, all that money for my attorneys, the$100,000, came out of our bank account.
SPEAKER_06:Right. Yeah, and the right to a defense, it like you said, it's a constitutional right. It actually predates the constitution. You know, um, I'm I'm sure you're familiar with the story Boston Massacre, right? The Boston Massacre, the the British soldiers who were charged uh were actually defended by John Adams.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Because he decided or he stated everyone has the right to a defense. So that's it's a make you know, that's the world that we live in. That's what the news is gonna say. And it's also shaping people's perception of of what happened. Um now you turned yourself in, and how long did we spend is prison the right word or uh county jail.
SPEAKER_03:So um it was county jail and penells. And if you the way they'd worked it out is we talked about going in on Monday, because if you go in on Monday, you you'll usually see a judge by the end of the day. It's very quick. You get seen before a judge, there is an initial hearing, they bring a common complaint, and then the judge rules based on what the prosecution is asking for, um if they're in a post-bail conditions, things like that. But because they wanted me to self-surrender on a Friday, that means you're spending the entire weekend in jail. So turn myself in on a Friday, they had me in um isolation, 24-hour observation until Monday morning.
SPEAKER_06:And then um, so how long was how long was your whole stint? So you were charged, you were in observation, and you spent so four days in county.
SPEAKER_03:Um after everything was done, we got to a plea agreement. They decided to charge the f they dropped the felony theft because I stole nothing. They decided to drop the violent entry because there's clear video of me just walking through a building and leaving, unprovoking anyone. And they ended up giving me 75 days in federal prison for misdemeanor trespassing, a$5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and a year of supervised release.
SPEAKER_06:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:With a stipulation of I could not profit off of my crime for five years or recoup any cost for my attorney fees.
SPEAKER_06:So tell me what that was like for your family. You know, I'm sure they were supportive through this whole thing, but now, you know, dad's got to go to federal prison for 75 days. How how do they handle that?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I mean, the best they could. We are honest with our kids. Um, you know, we're honest with each other. And when we sat down with them initially, we told them, listen, you know, while the government says that I committed a crime, I can't beat the government, and they're gonna do what they're gonna do. And we were looking initially at 10 to 20 years, which were some of the uh some of the rhetoric they were espousing online, some of the rhetoric that the Department of Justice was considering. And my family was willing to face that and ready to ready prepared to face that because you know, my wife and I, we understand that when we make a promise to each other of marriage, it means forever. It is a commitment not just to each other but and to God. And we're gonna honor that regardless. And my wife and I had that conversation immediately when I came back. I told her, look, if they're talking about 20 years, I mean, you're still young. I mean, she's in her 30s, my kids are, you know, 13 and under at this point. And it's like, I'm not gonna be here to teach them how to drive, I'm not gonna be here for weddings, I'm not gonna be here for graduations, prompts, you know, to raise them. I wouldn't expect you to do it alone. And she told me, you know, I I gave her an out, and the good woman that she is, the faithful woman that she is, she said, There's no way I'm going to betray my oath to God, my oath to you. I'm here as long as it takes, and I'll be here when you get out. And that was our decision from day one.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, young men take note. All right, if you're listening, young men take note. Um, that's that's wonderful. What a what a wonderful family, what a wonderful wife. Um so now we say uh Trump Trump pardoned everybody.
SPEAKER_03:He pardoned most people. I think there was uh blanket pardons, but I think there was 18 commutations of sentences.
SPEAKER_06:Okay. So let me ask you this is there like a community of J6ers? Like y'all are or is this like a close-knit family? In my head, I imagine y'all all like on a group chat sending gifts constantly, right? Sending memes.
SPEAKER_03:There are factions of J6ers, and you know, it is uh it is unfortunate to report that there are some factions that are different than others, have different um outcomes they're seeking and different avenues in which they're seeking them. And I can say that I wish everyone the best. Everyone deals with what happened to them differently. I, for my part, I try to communicate with everyone. I understand everyone has their own things going on, but I try not to draw allegiances between one group or the other. That's probably the most uh political, politically correct way that I could say.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, sure. So um, so what changed in your life after the pardon? How did that change your legal status?
SPEAKER_03:Uh unfortunately, it did not. It did um absolutely zero for me. By the time the pardons came, I'd already served my entire prison sentence. I paid my fined on my community service, I had finished up my supervised release, so the pardon um it's it's more of like a nod. You know, like sorry this happened to you.
SPEAKER_06:It's how how did it make you feel? I mean, is this still important?
SPEAKER_03:It's I'm in I'm indifferent on it. I have um I have uh how do I phrase this? To get my pardon, I have to email the DOJ an A USA. That's the assistant United States Turner's office, um, my VOP number, which is my Bureau of Prisons number, they assign you when you go to prison. Um, I have to give them my case number, date of birth, name, social, all these things. And at the end of it, they will, after they, you know, look into everything, they will email me a PDF file where I can print out my pardon at home. And you know, I try not to have too much of an ego, try not to be too much of a narcissist, but I think they can send me a piece of paper.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. You know, yeah, you can frame it, frame it next to the picture of you holding the lectin, obviously. What where else would you put it?
SPEAKER_03:To to print it out at the house, I don't know, it kind of feels like a slap in the face is probably the wrong, wrong phrasing to use, but it kind of feels like a
SPEAKER_06:Diminished uh diminished response.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's probably the best way to put it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Um so before I let you go, first of all, thank you. That excellent story. Thanks again for being here. Um I want to tell the listeners, right? My uh sponsor, freespoke.com. So Adam Johnson, the lectern guy. If you Google Adam Johnson, you're gonna get the top three pages are gonna be liberal bias media results. Okay, if we use freespoke.com, you get both sides of the story, you get all political perspectives, and give them promo code COM68 and receive 35% off. And don't take my word for it, do it yourself. Go Google Adam Johnson and then use FreeSpoke. Uh find out the whole story. That's part of why he does all these shows, tells the story. It's important to have information. And Adam, uh, what's next for you? Tell me a little more about what you're doing through unlicensed furniture movers and the book.
SPEAKER_03:Well, um, I don't have a give, send, go. I don't have a go fund me. I'm not one who wants to ask for charity. I'd rather, you know, work off the$100,000 of attorney fees. So I sell books, I sell, you know, trinkets, you know, this and that. And as far as my um ambitions, you know, after getting reimbursed for the$100,000 attorney fees, um, I'm working with state legislators to get a couple things passed in my state. Uh the big thing I'm pushing for right now in the state of Florida, if you have like 30 seconds, um, if you're in public school, the the default for sex education is you have to opt your children out of sex education in public schools. I think it should be the exact opposite. I think that if we're going to push for parental rights, then the option, the default should be I have to opt my kids in for this. So we're working on getting legislation to pass where the default is there is no stranger that gets you talk to children about sex or orientation or gender or any of that without the parents' permission. So that is what I'm working on for the next year.
SPEAKER_06:That's awesome. Yeah, no, I completely agree. I did two, three episodes ago about uh Netflix. I'm sure you saw the big stir right on X with Netflix, with all their shows, which you know, unfortunately, a lot of times when and you know you have five kids, uh when things get hectic, you just throw on the TV and kind of let up Netflix babysit them and look what they're doing. You know?
SPEAKER_03:Well, they are uh they are consistent, if not anything else.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and persistent. And yes, absolutely. So that yeah, that's great work. Adam Johnson, everybody. Uh, where can we find you? You're on X uh the website on licensed furniture movers.com. Is that right?
SPEAKER_03:That's correct. On uh Twitter you can find me, or X, you can find me at uh Lectern Leader.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, and then the last thing I said we were gonna give away a book. Um, this is my question. So text me when you see the podcast, uh, send us a text. My question is it's kind of fitting. There was a president in United States history that threw a party at the White House open to the public, and the White House got trashed. That's a true story. Which president was it? First person to text me which president that was gets a free copy of Take a Stand.
SPEAKER_03:Sounds good. I will also sign that copy.
SPEAKER_06:So awesome. All right, great. Thanks for listening, everybody. Adam, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, man. All right, have a good one. In today's world when media moves lightning fast, and so many people are so quick to give you their perspective, give you their opinions on something that happened without knowing all the facts. It's always great to get back to the source, get back to the person, hear it from the horse's mouth. Um, please go check out his merch. He's got a lot of merchandise on his website. That's unlicensed furniture movers.com. Uh give his book a read. Text us if you're the first to text the answer to my question. I'm gonna get you a signed copy of his book. Uh reach out to him, follow him on X. He responds. Uh he's doing a lot. As he said, he's very active in Florida and getting into politics, trying to change things for the better. You know, he took a situation that happened, he took his circumstance, he didn't let his circumstance define him. Yeah, now he's known as the Lectern guy, but he's turned that, owned that moniker, he's owned that name, and he's gonna do what God put him on his planet to do, and he's gonna fight for the rights and fight for moral justice, fight for the rights of children, and it was really inspiring. So thank you all for listening to me today. I pray blessings over you and your family. I pray God blesses you coming in and you're going out. I pray peace, power, and prosperity. And remember, you live in the greatest country on earth, and it's up to you to keep it.
SPEAKER_01:You are listening to Commission 68.