Four years and 60 days after Thomas Edward Caldwell was thrown on the hood of an FBI sedan during a predawn SWAT raid of his Virginia farm over alleged Jan. 6 crimes, justice finally came calling — courtesy of President Donald J. Trump.
Exactly 1,520 days after Caldwell was accused of being an Oath Keepers leader who plotted to attack the U.S. Capitol, President Trump signed a “full and unconditional pardon” for the service-disabled U.S. Navy veteran.
‘That’s a DC way of saying the government got it wrong.’
Caldwell, 70, of Berryville, Va., was neither an Oath Keeper nor a leader of the organization made up of military veterans, law enforcement officials, and first responders. Nor did his colorful language and pointed statements in private messages and on social media constitute a plot to attack the Capitol. But that did not stop the FBI and Department of Justice from attempting to make that narrative stick in front of a jury.
Caldwell said the chilling thought is what could have happened if the November 2024 presidential election went the other way.
“We are so grateful to President Trump, because if he had not been elected, this day of justice would not have arrived,” Caldwell told Blaze News. “I mean, this is almost like Old Testament day of jubilee stuff here, considering how many years we’ve been under the boot heels.”
Originally received commutation
When President Trump issued his pardon declaration on Jan. 20, Caldwell’s name was among 14 Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were given sentence commutations. That did nothing for Caldwell, who went home from his Jan. 10 sentencing hearing a free man, sentenced to time served and a $100 fine. At the time, he expressed hope the president would “upgrade” to a full pardon at some point.
Defense attorney David W. Fischer began lobbying for a pardon before President Trump took office.
“Of the hundreds of J6ers who are worthy of presidential pardons, Mr. Caldwell is arguably first among equals,” Fischer told Blaze News on Jan. 14.
After learning of Caldwell’s pardon, Fischer said the bottom line is the federal government simply got it wrong in its prosecution of his client.
“At the time Tom went on trial, progressive D.C. juries had not acquitted a single January 6 defendant of a single count — 65 guilty counts, 0 not guilty,” Fischer told Blaze News.
‘Didn’t even mind the tear gas.’
“Tom was acquitted of three major conspiracy counts, the Supreme Court exonerated him on a fourth count, and a federal judge sentenced him to a slap on wrist,” Fischer said. “That’s a D.C. way of saying the government got it wrong.”
On Nov. 29, 2022, a jury found Caldwell not guilty of felony seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties.
He was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, a charge eventually dropped after a landmark 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. So he was left facing a felony charge of tampering with documents for deleting his own exculpatory photos in a private message sent via Facebook Messenger. Those photos were on his phone and Caldwell said he never tried to hide them.
The Caldwells went to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 due to concerns the 2020 election had been stolen. The closest they got to inside the Capitol was the Lower West Terrace, and they retreated from there after five minutes.
Caldwell said brash things in messages to friends, including a suggestion he wipe his rear end using the doorknob to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. In his sentencing memo, Fischer described Caldwell as “more akin to a loud-mouth Walter Mitty than the Rambo-type figure the government has portrayed him.”
Thomas and Sharon Caldwell at a high school reunion event in 2024.Photo courtesy of Sharon Caldwell
The DOJ originally sought 14 years in prison for Caldwell, who during the length of his case had a total hip replacement and a spinal fusion. Caldwell has a 100% service disability from a progressively deteriorating back injury caused by a mortar round while he was on a classified mission in the Philippines. He was an intelligence officer in the Navy.
After the U.S. Supreme Court essentially shut down the obstruction of an official proceeding charge, the DOJ still wanted Caldwell to go to prison for four years. Fischer argued for a sentence of time served.
Caldwell said he is still amazed the legacy media is parroting the same talking points as it did in January 2021. Two days after Caldwell’s Jan. 19 arrest, the Washington Post quoted one of Caldwell’s messages to friends on Jan. 6.
“Us storming the castle. Please share. Sharon was right with me! I am such an instigator! She was ready for it man! Didn’t even mind the tear gas,” the message read. The so-called update Caldwell sent out was nonsense. Neither he nor Sharon went into the Capitol, and they were never tear-gassed.
That same day, the New York Times published an article calling Caldwell “an apparent leader of the far-right Oath Keepers.”
“It was totally nonsensical,” Caldwell told Blaze News. “And they [media] are getting all their stuff all that time directly from the DOJ.”
Caldwell said four years later, nothing has changed.
Same old falsehoods
“It’s a little disappointing to see the same falsehoods repeated over and over and over again, even in the wake of this good news,” he said. “The AP and UPI and all these people are saying, ‘Hey, he was an Oath Keeper and he did this.’ No, that’s not true. Gosh, they can’t even get my age correct.”
The Caldwells said they want to ensure that what happened to Tom Caldwell will not happen to anyone else, whether it was the abuse suffered in custody, the trial tainted with perjured police testimony, or the judge’s refusal to entertain a change of venue based on studies showing deep bias in D.C.
“The 53 days that I spent being mistreated in prison were to the very limits of what this old body could handle,” Caldwell said. “I mean, I am a veteran, I’m a disabled veteran. I’m a severely disabled veteran. And it was the Lord that pulled me through and my loving wife.”
Caldwell said he wants to see the FBI records of his three-hour interrogation on Jan. 19, 2021.
“I’ll tell you the transcripts of that, which will never see the light of day,” Caldwell said, “are extremely telling because so much of their questioning was, ‘Well, why do you like Trump? Why do you follow Trump?’”
Thomas Caldwell working on his Virginia farm before the Jan. 6 prosecution forced him to sell his animals and farm equipment. Photos courtesy of Sharon Caldwell
The Caldwells said they harbor no anger at prosecutors and do not wish any of them to be sent to jail, but the full story of what they did during the Oath Keepers trial needs to be released to the public.
“We try to pray for these folks,” Sharon Caldwell said. “And honestly, I can’t speak for Tom, but I can say as time has gone by, and certainly now that we have this great outcome, I really don’t, when I think about them, I do not have anger and bitterness in me.”
To finance Caldwell’s defense, the couple said they had to sell off their farm animals and farm equipment. The farm was saved, but they said it’s not clear how they can rebuild what they had. They have received prayers and financial support through a special Save Our Farm website, which Sharon Caldwell said would soon be updated with Tom’s pardon.
“We’ve got this beautiful little piece of land that I grew up on that I worked shoulder-to-shoulder with my late parents and my sister, my widowed sister,” Caldwell said. “And we look out here and there are no farm animals. There’s no equipment. We don’t have any of that. We just don’t know how we’re going to rebuild our lives. We hope that we can.”
While the federal judicial system needs reform, Caldwell said, in a way, the system worked in his case — just with a little help.
“I guess you could say the system did work out, but it took our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Caldwell said. “It took the support of people all across this country and in our local community.”
“And it took a guy getting elected to the presidency this past November that a lot of people think is riding to the rescue of our republic. It took all of those things to bring us freedom today.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Politics, Jan 6, Thomas caldwell
