J6 Pardon Project

What set the J6 Pardon Project apart from other January 6 advocacy efforts was not just its demand but its method: founder Suzzanne Monk assembled a comprehensive database of January 6 defendants and wrote a clemency strategy guide, “How To Pardon the J6ers: A Comprehensive Strategy Guide for President Donald J. Trump,” which she said — as relayed by the January 2025 Northern Neck Patriots newsletter — had been given to General Michael Flynn, with the database also covering every judge and prosecuting attorney involved in the defendants’ sentencings (Northern Neck Patriots). A sympathetic profile of Monk put the project’s goal plainly: develop a roadmap for the 47th president to pardon or commute the sentences of defendants prosecuted for January 6 attendance, end the pursuit of that day’s rally-goers, and restore a sense of justice to the courts and enforcement agencies (J6PatriotNews). (That newsletter spells her name “Suzanne” with one z; AFP, Reuters, and the coalition petition use “Suzzanne.”)

Monk’s activism long predated the project. During COVID she formed the first REOPEN AMERICA chapter in Chicago, hosted the TRUMP TALK podcast during the 2016 campaign, moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. in 2017, and formed PATRIOT ACTION PAC, per the J6PatriotNews profile (J6PatriotNews). She distributed Dinesh D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” documentary to more than 200 members of Congress, and in late 2022 hand-delivered 500-plus copies of “American Gulag Chronicles: Letters from Prison” — with financial assistance from Mike Lindell — to every Congressional office (J6PatriotNews). She also backed the nightly Freedom Corner vigils outside the D.C. jail, where supporters assembled regardless of weather and sang the National Anthem at 9 PM in solidarity with the detainees inside, and she prompted interested members of Congress to force a tour of the DC DOC facility so lawmakers could see the confinement conditions firsthand (J6PatriotNews). On the third anniversary of January 6, she appeared at a Jan 6th memorial remembrance in self-styled “CAPTIAN J6” garb — the outlet’s spelling — billed as the “Champion of the Patriots” (J6PatriotNews).

In the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, Monk was a visible voice in the clemency push. After Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press in an interview aired December 8, 2024, that he would act on pardons on his first day in office — while not ruling out pardoning even those who pleaded guilty — Monk told Reuters: “He continues to put out the public message closer and closer to what the J6 community is asking for, which is clemency for all of the January 6ers” (Reuters). Reuters described her as “a longtime advocate for defendants charged in the riot,” and noted that at least 1,572 defendants had been charged in what was billed as America’s largest-ever criminal investigation, with more than 1,251 convicted or pleading guilty and 645 sentenced to prison (Reuters).

The project’s public vehicle was the J6 Pardon Coalition’s petition at j6pardons.com, addressed to Trump and demanding the Day-One release of “all 1561” January 6 defendants under the banner “NO MAN LEFT BEHIND” (J6 Pardon Coalition). The petition states it is backed by the coalition and lists “Suzzanne Monk and Tamara Leigh of J6 Pardon Project” among its influential figures — alongside Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit, Wayne Allyn Root, Diamond & Silk, Professor David Clements, attorneys Steven Metcalf and Jonathan Gross, Jake Lang of the J6 Truth Organization, Treniss Evans of Condemned USA, influencers Behizy and Matt Wallace, and others (J6 Pardon Coalition). Beyond clemency, the petition made three further demands: that Trump appoint a new Attorney General on his first day who would dismiss all ongoing January 6 cases, and that all future investigations and arrests related to January 6 be halted (J6 Pardon Coalition).

The clemency came — and the project pivoted to pressure. AFP reported in April 2025 that despite receiving more than 1,500 pardons and commutations from Trump, the J6ers “have been among the most disgruntled MAGA figures,” as the administration failed to deliver the promised prosecutions of political opponents (AFP). Monk, whom AFP identified as “founder of the ‘J6 Pardon Project,’” had taken to tracking the arrests of January 6 defendants during Joe Biden’s first year and comparing them unfavorably with the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi (AFP). “Today is April 16th,” she posted that Wednesday. “By 4/16/21, the Biden regime had already arrested 406 January 6th Defendants and would go on to convict 99.7% of their arrests. How many arrests has Pam made?” (AFP).

Two honest notes about what the project is not. First, no fully-read source gives a founding date or any corporate or nonprofit registration for the J6 Pardon Project, so it is best understood as an advocacy campaign built around Monk rather than a formally registered organization. Second, it has no live official website: the domain j6pardonproject.com, fetched for this profile, currently resolves to unrelated esports-gambling content. The contrast is instructive — the investigative counterpart to this advocacy was official Washington, in the form of the House Select Committee on January 6, while Monk’s operation ran on databases, vigils, and a coalition petition.

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not give a founding date or legal status for the J6 Pardon Project, because no fully-read source provides either — it is described as an advocacy project, not a registered entity. It does not assert that “How To Pardon the J6ers” was published as a book; only an activist newsletter’s “author of” attribution was verified. The claimed handoff of the defendant database to Michael Flynn is reported as Monk’s own statement relayed by that newsletter, not as an independently confirmed event, and the Boston Globe interview the newsletter cites could not be located. The differing defendant counts — 1,572 charged (Reuters), 1,561 in the petition, “more than 1,500” pardoned or commuted (AFP) — are each attributed to their source rather than reconciled. Loaded characterizations such as “political prisoners,” “gulag,” and “regime” appear only as the sources’ own language, never as this profile’s.