"Dear America,
My name is Michael Perkins. I am currently writing from the DC detention facility known as the Gulag. I wanted to share a little bit about myself and my story on the events of January 6, and how it completely changed my life forever.
I am 40 years old and I’ve been married to my beautiful wife, Brittany, for 18 years. We have two amazing children, Shayne who is 20 years old and Emmaree who is 17. Since my wife and I both surrendered our lives to Christ in 2005, we have strived to live our life to please our Lord and Savior. We both grew up in broken homes with divorced parents, and we promised one another that we were going to break that cycle. We knew the statistics, and that there would be times where we wanted to give up but we also knew that if we kept Christ as head of our marriage and our lives, that we would live a blessed life and would be able to grow old together. We have tried to do just that.
I have always worked very hard to give my family everything they needed. In 2018, I quit my job as a manager for an electrical company to start my own business. I wanted to work for myself, and to start something the whole family could be involved with, especially my son. My wife has been a stay at home mom since 2014. As Christian parents, we did not like the new curriculums and the general direction that a lot of schools were headed so my wife quit her job at the school to homeschool both of our children. Our son graduated in 2020 and our daughter will graduate this coming year in 2024. We believe it is very important to be involved in the local church and outreach communities. Because of that, my family and I head up our churches Vacation Bible School each year, we clean our church two times a week, we do maintenance when needed, we teach, we play music and sing. We get involved with any event and we serve our Savior in any way possible. We support many missionaries around the world financially along with ministries to help the homeless and support our local pregnancy centers. We try to get involved in any way possible to share the love of Christ in our community.
I have never really paid any attention to politics nor have I ever felt the need to until Donald Trump ran for president. Not that it had anything to do with him, per say, but our eyes were open to a lot of evil and corruption during this time. We believe God used him to reveal a lot of evil and corruption that has been going on for a very long time. That, for whatever reason, the church had just grown blind to. Or rather we were asleep. The more research I did the more evident it became clear of what the agenda was for our country which we ultimately believe as Christians is end time agendas. “Spiritual wickedness in high places.” “The antichrist spirit.”
After the 2020 election, there was a lot being said, and also shown, of how the election was not fair so December 12, 2020, I attended a stop the steal rally in Washington D.C. along with a friend where we went to pray on the steps of the capitol for our nation. After seeing how peaceful it was at the rally and the amount of police presence that helped us safely get to our hotel that night, when President Trump invited everyone to January 6, I was confident it was safe enough to bring my wife and daughter along with 16 other friends and church members, of those some were elderly. We felt it was our duty as Christian Americans to go and pray and support the President of the United States. We thought it was a great opportunity to let our voices be heard. We had also brought a lot of Christian literature from our church to give to anyone who would receive it. The morning of January 6, we began to make our way to the rally and we ran into a young man who is also headed to the rally. He was alone and so we invited him to join us. We stopped for breakfast on the way and I had the privilege of leading the young man to the Lord. I remember thinking, what a great day it was already. God had already sent a lost soul to minister to. At the end of trumps speech, he told everyone to go to the Capitol and peacefully protest, he even said he was going to join us. As we approached the Capital, we never recall seeing any fencing, bike racks or signs that said, do not enter. We are law abiding citizens, and never would’ve entered a restricted area, especially my wife. I do my very best to respect and obey the law I would have never brought my family into a restricted area that could possibly be dangerous.
As we got closer to the Capitol we saw a bus pull up and load off a bunch of people wearing Trump shirts and hats, all of which seem to be between the age of 18 to 30, I now believe they were Antifa and undercover Feds. As we arrived to the West Terrace of the Capitol we began to sing and we were having a good time. Shortly after arriving, it was sudden chaos. There was teargas and pepper spray being sprayed at us. Explosions of gas going off in the crowd. People started pushing us, and in the midst of all the chaos, we were separated. My 14-year-old daughter was crying hysterically out of fear as she was pepper sprayed and gassed by Capitol Police. She was puking and gasping to breath but the chemicals filled the air and you couldn’t escape it. I recall multiple people saying cops were shooting people inside. We later found out that that was Ashli Babbitt that had been murdered.
I watched as cops ran and hit people in the crowd, and I watched as others taunted the police by pushing others into the police. I, too, was pushed into the police. My eyes were burning from all the pepper spray, and I could barely open them. All the sudden there was an officer laying at my feet, my first instinct was to reach down to help her up but the officer refused my help and pushed my hand away, not wanting my help. Another officer rushed in to help that officer as they began to spray me again. I bent down to grab my flag, and the officer rushed towards me as I stood up, looking in the opposite direction, he ran into my flag and punched me in the eye. I later had a very swollen blackeye. I had no idea what was happening. I was very disoriented during that time. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know where my family was. The officer alleged that I swung my flag after I was sprayed and punched in the direction of an officer coming. They say it may have hit him in the head or the back, but they cannot tell for sure.
In my trial, the officer said he never knew that he was touched until the FBI showed him his body worn camera. I was disoriented at that time I do not remember it even happening. I do know that I respect law-enforcement, I was backing the blue when the country was crying to defund the police and would never purposely try to harm anyone of them. I believe my family and I fell into a trap set up by our own government and we were attacked for no reason. We were there for a peaceful protest, and did not deserve to be pepper sprayed, gassed, and punched . Afterwards we were all in shock to what had just happened.
When we got back to the hotel, and watched the news, we were even more shocked that they were calling us the instigators, “terrorists” and “insurrectionists.” We could not believe it! Never once do I recall any cop telling us to leave, and that we were in a restricted area. They just began violently attacking us.
In the weeks following January 6, we started noticing different vehicles sitting in our neighborhood and in May 2021, we caught the FBI following us to church. I dropped my family off at the doors and drove around to see if our suspicions were true. As I pulled up to the park down the street there were about six gentlemen, standing in a circle talking. One of them made eye contact and said something to the others and they quickly dispersed to their vehicles. They still made no effort to contact us after that. And for six weeks we waited and wondered when they were coming. My wife made a report to the State Attorney’s office that we believe the FBI has been following us and that we were at the capitol on January 6 and we would like to know what was going on if and if they would contact us and let us know.
Two days later,at 5:45 AM, our home was violently raided. 50 or more FBI swat agents and Homeland Security agents came with four armored tanks. They threw percussion, grenades and flash bangs at our home. They began calling each of us out on a loudspeaker. As each one of us walked out we had lasers on us at gunpoint with agents screaming from every direction. The force they used was so excessive. Multiple pictures in our homes were knocked off the walls from the percussion grenades. Our carpets were caught on fire from the flash bangs that they threw in our home. When I walked outside, it looked like a war zone. The smoke was so heavy I could hardly see 5 feet in front of me. I felt as if I were Osama Bin Laden, and they were looking for a reason to shoot and kill me. I believe if I made one wrong move, they might’ve shot me. I believe they were hoping that the startle from those grenades would’ve disoriented me enough to make me come out with my gun, then they would’ve been justified in shooting me in their eyes.
Thank God for his protection on my family that day. As my wife and children and I stood handcuffed, they sent robots into our home with drones and were questioning us about booby traps. My wife jokingly said like home alone booby traps? We watched as they went around with a claw hammer and beat all of our security cameras off our house (all of this up until this point we have on camera) when arriving, they had crashed through my back gate destroying it, and my dog was so frightened, she ran away for a few days. She now suffers with PTSD from loud noises along with my wife and daughter! After swat cleared the property, 40 FBI agents came to the scene to search. I was put in a car with two agents who began questioning me to which I refused to answer any of their questions. My wife and daughter were led inside to get dressed. They quickly hurried my daughter while letting my wife take her time. As my wife came out the front door, two females with an envelope were showing my daughter a picture of herself at the Capitol and threatening her to tell them who went with us and how we all got there. My wife immediately asked what was going on knowing that she was 14 and they were questioning her without her mother present. We never got their names, and those ladies disappeared after my wife asked them what was going on, but that was a violation of our rights. My son, who at the time was 18 and did not travel to the capitol with us because of work was being harassed by two agents and threatened that if he was found to be there, they would come for him next.
As my wife told him to tell them he wanted a lawyer she was then cussed in front of everyone and her children by those agents. I was handed over to Homeland Security which brought me to the courthouse. Two of our friends from church that traveled to DC with us had been raided at the same time. We all went before the judge. They were released while I was being held. The Marshal that brought me to the holding cell told me to try to go before a Washington D.C .judge, because the judge here is very biased, and he will not be fair for me. I thank the Lord for the people he’s placed along my path through all of this, that have helped lead and guide me. I had a date scheduled in 14 days to go before the judge in DC. I was supposed to fly to D.C. the week before, but a hurricane formed, and was coming toward Florida, so all the flights were canceled. Instead, I had a zoom court hearing and was released on home confinement. I believe God spared me from D.C.
At that point in time, the Gulag, had been a place where the January 6 men were being tortured and abused, I believe God sent that storm so I didn’t have to go to D.C .just yet. Pre-trial conditions were that I could not be on my porch. I couldn’t take out my trash and I couldn’t walk next-door to help my father who lives on the same property. I had to be indoors. Unless I was at work or church. Four to six nights a week I would receive calls from the home confinement monitoring center between the hours of 11 and 4 AM saying I was in violation although I was in bed sleeping. They would call and say that I needed to get up and stand next to a window for four minutes, I’d hear laughing in the background like it was a joke to them. We feared they would use these alerts to put me back in jail and I honestly believe that’s what they were trying to do. But after 16 months of dealing with the faulty equipment and calls during the night, the judge finally granted the motion for stand-alone monitoring only. I am so thankful for that answer to prayer. I felt like I could live a somewhat normal life again. I was able to go fishing with my son and we were even able to take a vacation. It had been a very long 16 months and my trial was to begin on March 6 in Washington D.C. 5 months later. We had tried to move it out of D.C. because we believed it to be very biased but that, of course, was denied. My public defender thought it was a good idea to have a bench trial because the jury poll in DC was way too biased. Leading up to my trial, my family and my church community prayed fervently. We trusted that God was going to work a miracle. There was zero evidence that I went to DC that day to do anything other than peacefully protest yet I was convicted on all charges and it was as if the judge had his mind made up from the very beginning. My family and I were completely broken and confused. We went there that day to make a stand for what was right and share the love of Christ and now I’m facing serious prison time. We are so disappointed in our government, I believe they set us up and they hid lots of information and evidence that proves our innocence I also believe a lot of the officers didn’t have a clue what was planned that day as well.
What I would like for America to know is that I am not the man the media has portrayed me to be. I am not a terrorist or in insurrectionist that was threatening our democracy that day. I am an average hard-working American that lives paycheck to paycheck to provide for my family. I put my whole heart into my faith, my family, and my country and clearly must be the very threat they see. If that’s the case, and if you fall into any of those categories, you’re a threat as well.
Although they have tried to break us with the strength of Christ, we will still stand no matter what they do to us. They can take our physical freedom but they cannot take our spiritual freedom in Christ. If I have Christ I have everything I need. Since my trial, I had to self-surrender and have been incarcerated for the last six months. But even still I know God is with me. I have led Bible studies and prayer meetings in lots of facilities in the last 6 months and have seen men come to know Christ and some that have re-dedicated their lives to Christ and so for that, I’m truly grateful and know this is all not in vain. To God be the glory!
As a husband and father the greatest burden on my shoulders right now is not being about to provide for my family. I knew my family would be struggling financially, so I have prayed for God to provide for them and within the first couple weeks of being in jail one of the correction officers heard about my story and wanted to help us with some bills. He gave enough money to my wife to pay for three months of bills. We were in tears as we praised the Lord for his provision. Another miracle we were able to witness through all of this As I made my journey to the DC jail I got to experience some pretty horrible places along the way. I was not looking forward to the place known as the Gulag, I’d heard all the horrible stories about that place. As I arrived I was not treated fair. I watched for five days as others got to make phone calls and shower. I asked for two days for toilet paper until I finally received some from a trustee. I constantly asked for grievance forms, and was told that they would get me one, but never did. There was no AC and so I was constantly sweating. my toilet leaked water everywhere every time I flushed it. Mice were constantly in and out of my room and the men in my section screamed and kicked the doors all night long. One night a man got pepper sprayed a couple doors down for me, and I coughed and struggled to breathe for four hours because there was no air circulation to get rid of the spray. The guards would not even come in that section for four hours afterwards.
Others received tablets, but I did not. Others would be let out, but I would not be, with nothing to read and nothing to do. I sat for 9 days in my cell. I constantly prayed and sang praises to the Lord. I tried telling the guards about the love of Christ, instead of showing them hate but they would never stop to talk to me. I asked them for a Bible multiple times and they would never give me one. I watched as a Muslim man was brought a Quran and a prayer mat. It’s reminded me about the scripture that says, “If the world hates you remember that hated me first.” I knew Jesus knew how I felt and that gave me peace.
It was such a relief when I was finally moved to the J6 pod. All my brothers were very welcoming and made sure I had everything I needed. They gave me food and support and for that I am so grateful. I was sentenced on August 17 to 48 months in prison. I do not understand how someone can get four years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon (which was a Trump flag )on an officer who did not even know the flag touched him.. Before sentencing, about 50 friends and family members wrote to the judge, pleading for mercy to him. My wife and children did videos for the judge, pleading for mercy, asking him to be a just judge, asking him to be that judge that starts to turn the tide on some of these cases. My wife pleaded for house arrest. When the judge rendered his sentence, he admitted that he had never seen a man with as much character and community support as I had. The prosecutors even said that sometimes good men make mistakes. They all admitted I was a good man and clearly saw that I was in the middle of total chaos that day and was very confused, but that did not matter. The judge said the main reasoning for his 48 months sentence was deterrence. He had an obligation to prevent this from ever happening again, and for the comments that he made, I was led to believe that even he was not in charge and that ultimately he is being forced and made to do this.
He saw the evidence, he saw the prosecutors altered evidence and even cropped a video to hide what was really happening and yet he chose to go along with the narrative. The Bible teaches us that we reap what we sow and I believe in the 60s when we started taking the 10 Commandments out of the courthouse and we took the Bible out of all the schools we are now reaping the consequences of that, there is no justice in our courts because the word of God is not in our courts. Men don’t fear God anymore. Our judges don’t fear God anymore. That was our main prayer for our judge, that the fear of God would fall upon his heart, and that he would fear God rather than man. We may never get justice this side of heaven, but we know that our God knows and sees all, and he says vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will repay… God will repay all these people for the evil, and for the hurt and the damage they’ve caused in our life and we have peace with that.
In the last 23 years I have never been apart from my wife and children. It’s been a very hard road being in prison while they are struggling emotionally and financially, I have never been one to ask for help, but I am in a position that I greatly need help with. as the main provider for my family, this is a burden that is heavy on me knowing I can’t provide for them. My daughter will be graduating next year and wants to go to school to be a veterinarian. There are so many things that I will no longer be able to provide for my family, and it truly breaks my heart.
I desire your prayers most of all, but along with that my family needs financial support until my wife can get back on her feet. We have closed our small business and she works part time but it’s just not enough right now. Any donation will be greatly appreciated and will go directly to my family to pay bills and help lighten the burden that my wife is now carrying. This trial in our life we are dealing with has caused my family to cling to the promises of God more now than ever. There must be a test to have a testimony. We serve a great and mighty God and he knows exactly what is happening, and I trust that he has a great plan in store for us all. Romans 8:28 says, “and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose ” and because of that promise, we have hope! God bless you all and God bless America."
Michael Perkins
My name is Michael Perkins. I am currently writing from the DC detention facility known as the Gulag. I wanted to share a little bit about myself and my story on the events of January 6, and how it completely changed my life forever.
I am 40 years old and I’ve been married to my beautiful wife, Brittany, for 18 years. We have two amazing children, Shayne who is 20 years old and Emmaree who is 17. Since my wife and I both surrendered our lives to Christ in 2005, we have strived to live our life to please our Lord and Savior. We both grew up in broken homes with divorced parents, and we promised one another that we were going to break that cycle. We knew the statistics, and that there would be times where we wanted to give up but we also knew that if we kept Christ as head of our marriage and our lives, that we would live a blessed life and would be able to grow old together. We have tried to do just that.
I have always worked very hard to give my family everything they needed. In 2018, I quit my job as a manager for an electrical company to start my own business. I wanted to work for myself, and to start something the whole family could be involved with, especially my son. My wife has been a stay at home mom since 2014. As Christian parents, we did not like the new curriculums and the general direction that a lot of schools were headed so my wife quit her job at the school to homeschool both of our children. Our son graduated in 2020 and our daughter will graduate this coming year in 2024. We believe it is very important to be involved in the local church and outreach communities. Because of that, my family and I head up our churches Vacation Bible School each year, we clean our church two times a week, we do maintenance when needed, we teach, we play music and sing. We get involved with any event and we serve our Savior in any way possible. We support many missionaries around the world financially along with ministries to help the homeless and support our local pregnancy centers. We try to get involved in any way possible to share the love of Christ in our community.
I have never really paid any attention to politics nor have I ever felt the need to until Donald Trump ran for president. Not that it had anything to do with him, per say, but our eyes were open to a lot of evil and corruption during this time. We believe God used him to reveal a lot of evil and corruption that has been going on for a very long time. That, for whatever reason, the church had just grown blind to. Or rather we were asleep. The more research I did the more evident it became clear of what the agenda was for our country which we ultimately believe as Christians is end time agendas. “Spiritual wickedness in high places.” “The antichrist spirit.”
After the 2020 election, there was a lot being said, and also shown, of how the election was not fair so December 12, 2020, I attended a stop the steal rally in Washington D.C. along with a friend where we went to pray on the steps of the capitol for our nation. After seeing how peaceful it was at the rally and the amount of police presence that helped us safely get to our hotel that night, when President Trump invited everyone to January 6, I was confident it was safe enough to bring my wife and daughter along with 16 other friends and church members, of those some were elderly. We felt it was our duty as Christian Americans to go and pray and support the President of the United States. We thought it was a great opportunity to let our voices be heard. We had also brought a lot of Christian literature from our church to give to anyone who would receive it. The morning of January 6, we began to make our way to the rally and we ran into a young man who is also headed to the rally. He was alone and so we invited him to join us. We stopped for breakfast on the way and I had the privilege of leading the young man to the Lord. I remember thinking, what a great day it was already. God had already sent a lost soul to minister to. At the end of trumps speech, he told everyone to go to the Capitol and peacefully protest, he even said he was going to join us. As we approached the Capital, we never recall seeing any fencing, bike racks or signs that said, do not enter. We are law abiding citizens, and never would’ve entered a restricted area, especially my wife. I do my very best to respect and obey the law I would have never brought my family into a restricted area that could possibly be dangerous.
As we got closer to the Capitol we saw a bus pull up and load off a bunch of people wearing Trump shirts and hats, all of which seem to be between the age of 18 to 30, I now believe they were Antifa and undercover Feds. As we arrived to the West Terrace of the Capitol we began to sing and we were having a good time. Shortly after arriving, it was sudden chaos. There was teargas and pepper spray being sprayed at us. Explosions of gas going off in the crowd. People started pushing us, and in the midst of all the chaos, we were separated. My 14-year-old daughter was crying hysterically out of fear as she was pepper sprayed and gassed by Capitol Police. She was puking and gasping to breath but the chemicals filled the air and you couldn’t escape it. I recall multiple people saying cops were shooting people inside. We later found out that that was Ashli Babbitt that had been murdered.
I watched as cops ran and hit people in the crowd, and I watched as others taunted the police by pushing others into the police. I, too, was pushed into the police. My eyes were burning from all the pepper spray, and I could barely open them. All the sudden there was an officer laying at my feet, my first instinct was to reach down to help her up but the officer refused my help and pushed my hand away, not wanting my help. Another officer rushed in to help that officer as they began to spray me again. I bent down to grab my flag, and the officer rushed towards me as I stood up, looking in the opposite direction, he ran into my flag and punched me in the eye. I later had a very swollen blackeye. I had no idea what was happening. I was very disoriented during that time. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know where my family was. The officer alleged that I swung my flag after I was sprayed and punched in the direction of an officer coming. They say it may have hit him in the head or the back, but they cannot tell for sure.
In my trial, the officer said he never knew that he was touched until the FBI showed him his body worn camera. I was disoriented at that time I do not remember it even happening. I do know that I respect law-enforcement, I was backing the blue when the country was crying to defund the police and would never purposely try to harm anyone of them. I believe my family and I fell into a trap set up by our own government and we were attacked for no reason. We were there for a peaceful protest, and did not deserve to be pepper sprayed, gassed, and punched . Afterwards we were all in shock to what had just happened.
When we got back to the hotel, and watched the news, we were even more shocked that they were calling us the instigators, “terrorists” and “insurrectionists.” We could not believe it! Never once do I recall any cop telling us to leave, and that we were in a restricted area. They just began violently attacking us.
In the weeks following January 6, we started noticing different vehicles sitting in our neighborhood and in May 2021, we caught the FBI following us to church. I dropped my family off at the doors and drove around to see if our suspicions were true. As I pulled up to the park down the street there were about six gentlemen, standing in a circle talking. One of them made eye contact and said something to the others and they quickly dispersed to their vehicles. They still made no effort to contact us after that. And for six weeks we waited and wondered when they were coming. My wife made a report to the State Attorney’s office that we believe the FBI has been following us and that we were at the capitol on January 6 and we would like to know what was going on if and if they would contact us and let us know.
Two days later,at 5:45 AM, our home was violently raided. 50 or more FBI swat agents and Homeland Security agents came with four armored tanks. They threw percussion, grenades and flash bangs at our home. They began calling each of us out on a loudspeaker. As each one of us walked out we had lasers on us at gunpoint with agents screaming from every direction. The force they used was so excessive. Multiple pictures in our homes were knocked off the walls from the percussion grenades. Our carpets were caught on fire from the flash bangs that they threw in our home. When I walked outside, it looked like a war zone. The smoke was so heavy I could hardly see 5 feet in front of me. I felt as if I were Osama Bin Laden, and they were looking for a reason to shoot and kill me. I believe if I made one wrong move, they might’ve shot me. I believe they were hoping that the startle from those grenades would’ve disoriented me enough to make me come out with my gun, then they would’ve been justified in shooting me in their eyes.
Thank God for his protection on my family that day. As my wife and children and I stood handcuffed, they sent robots into our home with drones and were questioning us about booby traps. My wife jokingly said like home alone booby traps? We watched as they went around with a claw hammer and beat all of our security cameras off our house (all of this up until this point we have on camera) when arriving, they had crashed through my back gate destroying it, and my dog was so frightened, she ran away for a few days. She now suffers with PTSD from loud noises along with my wife and daughter! After swat cleared the property, 40 FBI agents came to the scene to search. I was put in a car with two agents who began questioning me to which I refused to answer any of their questions. My wife and daughter were led inside to get dressed. They quickly hurried my daughter while letting my wife take her time. As my wife came out the front door, two females with an envelope were showing my daughter a picture of herself at the Capitol and threatening her to tell them who went with us and how we all got there. My wife immediately asked what was going on knowing that she was 14 and they were questioning her without her mother present. We never got their names, and those ladies disappeared after my wife asked them what was going on, but that was a violation of our rights. My son, who at the time was 18 and did not travel to the capitol with us because of work was being harassed by two agents and threatened that if he was found to be there, they would come for him next.
As my wife told him to tell them he wanted a lawyer she was then cussed in front of everyone and her children by those agents. I was handed over to Homeland Security which brought me to the courthouse. Two of our friends from church that traveled to DC with us had been raided at the same time. We all went before the judge. They were released while I was being held. The Marshal that brought me to the holding cell told me to try to go before a Washington D.C .judge, because the judge here is very biased, and he will not be fair for me. I thank the Lord for the people he’s placed along my path through all of this, that have helped lead and guide me. I had a date scheduled in 14 days to go before the judge in DC. I was supposed to fly to D.C. the week before, but a hurricane formed, and was coming toward Florida, so all the flights were canceled. Instead, I had a zoom court hearing and was released on home confinement. I believe God spared me from D.C.
At that point in time, the Gulag, had been a place where the January 6 men were being tortured and abused, I believe God sent that storm so I didn’t have to go to D.C .just yet. Pre-trial conditions were that I could not be on my porch. I couldn’t take out my trash and I couldn’t walk next-door to help my father who lives on the same property. I had to be indoors. Unless I was at work or church. Four to six nights a week I would receive calls from the home confinement monitoring center between the hours of 11 and 4 AM saying I was in violation although I was in bed sleeping. They would call and say that I needed to get up and stand next to a window for four minutes, I’d hear laughing in the background like it was a joke to them. We feared they would use these alerts to put me back in jail and I honestly believe that’s what they were trying to do. But after 16 months of dealing with the faulty equipment and calls during the night, the judge finally granted the motion for stand-alone monitoring only. I am so thankful for that answer to prayer. I felt like I could live a somewhat normal life again. I was able to go fishing with my son and we were even able to take a vacation. It had been a very long 16 months and my trial was to begin on March 6 in Washington D.C. 5 months later. We had tried to move it out of D.C. because we believed it to be very biased but that, of course, was denied. My public defender thought it was a good idea to have a bench trial because the jury poll in DC was way too biased. Leading up to my trial, my family and my church community prayed fervently. We trusted that God was going to work a miracle. There was zero evidence that I went to DC that day to do anything other than peacefully protest yet I was convicted on all charges and it was as if the judge had his mind made up from the very beginning. My family and I were completely broken and confused. We went there that day to make a stand for what was right and share the love of Christ and now I’m facing serious prison time. We are so disappointed in our government, I believe they set us up and they hid lots of information and evidence that proves our innocence I also believe a lot of the officers didn’t have a clue what was planned that day as well.
What I would like for America to know is that I am not the man the media has portrayed me to be. I am not a terrorist or in insurrectionist that was threatening our democracy that day. I am an average hard-working American that lives paycheck to paycheck to provide for my family. I put my whole heart into my faith, my family, and my country and clearly must be the very threat they see. If that’s the case, and if you fall into any of those categories, you’re a threat as well.
Although they have tried to break us with the strength of Christ, we will still stand no matter what they do to us. They can take our physical freedom but they cannot take our spiritual freedom in Christ. If I have Christ I have everything I need. Since my trial, I had to self-surrender and have been incarcerated for the last six months. But even still I know God is with me. I have led Bible studies and prayer meetings in lots of facilities in the last 6 months and have seen men come to know Christ and some that have re-dedicated their lives to Christ and so for that, I’m truly grateful and know this is all not in vain. To God be the glory!
As a husband and father the greatest burden on my shoulders right now is not being about to provide for my family. I knew my family would be struggling financially, so I have prayed for God to provide for them and within the first couple weeks of being in jail one of the correction officers heard about my story and wanted to help us with some bills. He gave enough money to my wife to pay for three months of bills. We were in tears as we praised the Lord for his provision. Another miracle we were able to witness through all of this As I made my journey to the DC jail I got to experience some pretty horrible places along the way. I was not looking forward to the place known as the Gulag, I’d heard all the horrible stories about that place. As I arrived I was not treated fair. I watched for five days as others got to make phone calls and shower. I asked for two days for toilet paper until I finally received some from a trustee. I constantly asked for grievance forms, and was told that they would get me one, but never did. There was no AC and so I was constantly sweating. my toilet leaked water everywhere every time I flushed it. Mice were constantly in and out of my room and the men in my section screamed and kicked the doors all night long. One night a man got pepper sprayed a couple doors down for me, and I coughed and struggled to breathe for four hours because there was no air circulation to get rid of the spray. The guards would not even come in that section for four hours afterwards.
Others received tablets, but I did not. Others would be let out, but I would not be, with nothing to read and nothing to do. I sat for 9 days in my cell. I constantly prayed and sang praises to the Lord. I tried telling the guards about the love of Christ, instead of showing them hate but they would never stop to talk to me. I asked them for a Bible multiple times and they would never give me one. I watched as a Muslim man was brought a Quran and a prayer mat. It’s reminded me about the scripture that says, “If the world hates you remember that hated me first.” I knew Jesus knew how I felt and that gave me peace.
It was such a relief when I was finally moved to the J6 pod. All my brothers were very welcoming and made sure I had everything I needed. They gave me food and support and for that I am so grateful. I was sentenced on August 17 to 48 months in prison. I do not understand how someone can get four years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon (which was a Trump flag )on an officer who did not even know the flag touched him.. Before sentencing, about 50 friends and family members wrote to the judge, pleading for mercy to him. My wife and children did videos for the judge, pleading for mercy, asking him to be a just judge, asking him to be that judge that starts to turn the tide on some of these cases. My wife pleaded for house arrest. When the judge rendered his sentence, he admitted that he had never seen a man with as much character and community support as I had. The prosecutors even said that sometimes good men make mistakes. They all admitted I was a good man and clearly saw that I was in the middle of total chaos that day and was very confused, but that did not matter. The judge said the main reasoning for his 48 months sentence was deterrence. He had an obligation to prevent this from ever happening again, and for the comments that he made, I was led to believe that even he was not in charge and that ultimately he is being forced and made to do this.
He saw the evidence, he saw the prosecutors altered evidence and even cropped a video to hide what was really happening and yet he chose to go along with the narrative. The Bible teaches us that we reap what we sow and I believe in the 60s when we started taking the 10 Commandments out of the courthouse and we took the Bible out of all the schools we are now reaping the consequences of that, there is no justice in our courts because the word of God is not in our courts. Men don’t fear God anymore. Our judges don’t fear God anymore. That was our main prayer for our judge, that the fear of God would fall upon his heart, and that he would fear God rather than man. We may never get justice this side of heaven, but we know that our God knows and sees all, and he says vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will repay… God will repay all these people for the evil, and for the hurt and the damage they’ve caused in our life and we have peace with that.
In the last 23 years I have never been apart from my wife and children. It’s been a very hard road being in prison while they are struggling emotionally and financially, I have never been one to ask for help, but I am in a position that I greatly need help with. as the main provider for my family, this is a burden that is heavy on me knowing I can’t provide for them. My daughter will be graduating next year and wants to go to school to be a veterinarian. There are so many things that I will no longer be able to provide for my family, and it truly breaks my heart.
I desire your prayers most of all, but along with that my family needs financial support until my wife can get back on her feet. We have closed our small business and she works part time but it’s just not enough right now. Any donation will be greatly appreciated and will go directly to my family to pay bills and help lighten the burden that my wife is now carrying. This trial in our life we are dealing with has caused my family to cling to the promises of God more now than ever. There must be a test to have a testimony. We serve a great and mighty God and he knows exactly what is happening, and I trust that he has a great plan in store for us all. Romans 8:28 says, “and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose ” and because of that promise, we have hope! God bless you all and God bless America."
Michael Perkins
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