A Night to Remember At Bedminster

How The Patriot Freedom Project Has Stepped Up To Advocate For J6 Victims And Their Families Where Lawmakers Have Failed

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It may be said that the cause on which the fate of the American experiment rests, indeed the final cause, is the cause of January 6^th.  Simply stated, January 6^th represents the first time in American history where the Government has turned against its own people – a bald-faced act of tyranny if ever one existed.  The fact that American citizens languish behind bars in a DC federal penitentiary to this day, subject to inhumane conditions, without due process, would have in the past been universally condemned by international law as unjust and intolerable (and no doubt unconstitutional) acts of cruelty.  Their treatment would have been considered unsuitable to foreign-born prisoners of war (let alone one’s own countrymen), and rightly condemned as much.  Now, it is the ultimate telltale of a regime gone mad.  

No matter one’s position on the 2020 election, a government that declares its own citizens “domestic terrorists” has abdicated whatever legitimacy it might have otherwise claimed from the ballot and normal democratic processes.  January 6^th, at its most fundamental level, speaks to the timeless interplay between legality and legitimacy: what is necessarily the outcome of legalistic processes is not in and of itself legitimate, let alone moral.  The greatest philosophers across every age– from Plato to the Bible to Cicero to Augustine – spoke of the timeless maxim, lex iniusta non est lex: an unjust law is no law at all – which has been applied, to remarkable ends, by their greatest students, from St. Thomas Aquinas to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When a regime, like ours, weaponizes legality for the obvious purpose of silencing political opponents, it has abandoned every pretext to legitimacy.

January 6^th is but the latest iteration of the eternal interplay for human freedom in the face of tyranny – the battle of good versus evil.  Tyranny has arrived on these shores with a vengeance, at a scale not seen since the days of King George III.  But today’s tyranny comes not from the arbitrary edicts of a fanatical king stationed overseas, but through the justice system itself, which has become irrevocably decoupled from its constitutional prerogative.  That Americans are being locked up, many of whom have not been charged with a crime, should be a moral outrage to that dwindling minority in government who still believe in due process of law. To the extent anyone committed any valid nonviolent crime that day, those crimes should, at worst, be misdemeanors, and certainly not the makeshift felonies being carved out from the groundless narrative produced by the politically weaponized January 6^th Committee, whose ideas are now being implemented into law by rogue judges and activist district attorneys, acting at the behest of Washington’s uniparty establishment. 

This witch-hunt against the American people has created a climate of fear and neurosis, which is being exploited malevolently by opportunistic actors who now control virtually every lever of power.  The entire thing is un-American to its core.  In ways that far surpasses the Red Scare of the 1950s, Washington has been driven into a schizophrenic craze to squash patriots it now labels political enemies with a fervor not seen since the purges of Stalin and Mao, of a time when communism’s curtain still draped over half the planet.  

Unfortunately, what is past is prologue, and the horrors of communism are still being played out in real time – but with a new backdrop: the American stage.  With rumors circulating that the FBI is planning to arrest yet another thousand or so overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators, the vast majority of whom did not commit any acts of violence at the Capitol on January 6^th, 2021, let alone damage property (and certainly did not conspire to bring down the federal government but were merely there to show their support for President Trump and the cause of election integrity) it is as clear as ever that the Biden regime will stop at nothing to transform the United States into Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.

So, where does one turn when the politicians, judges, and rule of law all fail?  

Cynthia Hughes was inspired to take action after a close family member was involved in the January 6th demonstration and persecuted as a result. Hughes’ nephew, Timothy, a former Army reservist, was at the scene of the January 6^th event and is now currently serving out a four-year sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, which he was transferred to after serving a nearly two-year sentence in the hell on earth that has become known as the DC Gulag. Along the way, Timothy was denied his First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights at the hands of his own government.

In response to the tremendous need in American politics for support groups and organizations that would stand by what truly are America’s most vulnerable, Hughes launched the Patriot Freedom Project (or “PFP” for short), which, according to its website, is “a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that raises funds to provide financial assistance and other forms of relief to those arrested and their families, known as the J6 families.”  Since its formation ,the organization has quickly grown in prominence over just a few short years.  Thankfully there are still patriotic donors willing to finance an organization of this kind, which is necessary – especially to help pay for the steep legal fees of the attorneys who stepped up to the plate, particularly early on, to take on some of these cases.  Many of these attorneys put everything on the line – their careers and professional reputations – to represent a J6 client, and have suffered the consequences of an exceedingly hostile profession that outwardly professes to follow the spirit of John Adams, who famously represented eight British soldiers that carried out the Boston Massacre, while engaging in Robespierrian purity tests behind closed doors – unpersoning attorneys who fail to toe the party line with Gestapoesque callousness. 

What Cynthia went through — and still continues to endure — with Timothy was a story shared by tens of thousands (if not more) patriotic American families. Her work with the PFP quickly garnered support from coast to coast, and inspired other families with similar stories to take action out of their shared heartache.

Geri Perna signed onto Cynthia’s vision after having a nephew herself, Matthew Perna, subject to persecution at the hands of the deep state. Perna’s crime? Standing for the cause of election integrity, a cause tens of millions of Americans — on both sides of the political aisle — also share. Matthew’s story is even more heartbreaking than Timothy’s: he took his own life as a result of his betrayal by his own country.

Matthew’s spirit was broken after languishing for months in limbo, experiencing constant delays in hearings that dragged over the course of an entire year. And the federal government considers January 6th victims public enemy number one, and they are treated as such: being subject to the most vile prison conditions and legal procedures.

The system, by design, is meant to demoralize the persecuted in the most inhumane ways conceivable: the process is the punishment. Ultimately, the government smacked the terrorist label on Matthew, which was simply too much for an already shattered man. He committed suicide on February 25, 2022: death from a broken heart. Perna’s obituary stated simply: “Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died,” a hauntingly pithy encapsulation for what the entire country is going through at the present moment.  

Despite the darkness of these times, which can periodically seem all-consuming, there are always rays of hope – evidence that the Good Lord will never abandon his flock. 

Testimony to this fact is seen in how quickly the Patriot Freedom Project has grown over just a few short years.  They have reached a point where they can now host multiple events at the most exclusive venue in the country: Donald Trump’s Bedminster estate.  Indeed, on the grandest stage, the process of punishment by legalistic bloodletting, so to speak, is viscerally being played out in real-time with each one of the four sham indictments lodged against Donald Trump. 

President Trump has been the only presidential candidate to wholeheartedly embrace January 6th defendants and their families — even inviting their families to private Patriot Freedom Project-organized events at his lavish Bedminster estate.

President Trump is sometimes half-jokingly referred to as “J6 Victim #1,” for he is being scapegoated by the same evil forces that hope to permanently silence every J6 victim with each one of these bogus indictments. Of all the presidential candidates, he has been the only one to embrace the victims and their families with open arms.  Over this past summer alone, he opened his own doors to children whose fathers continue to decay in federal prison, awaiting trial for completely makeshift charges.  This is not just politics: this is personal for President Trump.

He is the only candidate who could redeem the cause of January 6^th – not just through pardons – but by his relationship through his personal stake in the matter.  Where most other lawmakers, including virtually every single Republican, pretended to ignore the biggest elephant in the room for the 2024 cycle, President Trump has wholeheartedly welcomed the victims – recognizing it as quintessentially his own, and moreover, perhaps the final test which will determine whether the flame of lady liberty continues to burn across this land for another generation. 

Far from being solemn spectacles, PFP fundraisers at Bedminster have been joyous occasions, celebrating the memories of loved ones while reaffirming the organization’s commitment to the greater cause of freedom, which is the driving force behind it all.  Cynthia Hughes often starts off the events with a prayer, followed by a series of keynote speeches from MAGA luminaries, such as former Congressman Louie Gohmert, who has been maybe the most ferocious advocate for the cause of J6 among lawmakers.  During his time in Congress, Congressman Gohmert introduced the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2022, named after the late Matthew Perna, which was designed to “provide protections for nonviolent political protesters, and for other purposes.”  Since his retirement, Congressman Gohmert has continued to rally on behalf of J6 victims, becoming a mainstay and, as a former judge with firsthand knowledge of how the justice system is supposed to work, revered speaker at each one of the Bedminster events.  

President Trump pictured with the children of several January 6th defendants — Jose Padilla, Rachel Powell, and Jorden Mink — at the Patriot Freedom Project’s June 22nd Bedminster event.

In his remarks before the packed room, Congressman Gohmert also referenced Nineteen Eighty-Four, the dystopian novel about a future totalitarian government.  At the time the novel was written in 1948, the free world in which its author, George Orwell, inhabited had just defeated one form of tyranny in Nazism a few short years before, while staring down another form of tyranny in the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and China, both of which threatened to bring down the free world for another forty years thereafter.  Thus, the idea that the future would be bleak, and the whole world soon enveloped in global tyranny, was not a farfetched notion. Indeed, the chickens have come home to roost: Today, given the Communist-like subjugation of J6 victims found all throughout America, the analogy to the events of the novel was uncannily apropos to the occasion.  In his remarks the Congressman deadpanned, “the only thing Orwell got wrong [about the future dystopia he portrayed in the novel] was the year.” 

Other frequent staples at PFP events include Jeff Clark, who served in a number of high-ranking posts within the DOJ under President Trump’s first term and is on a short list of favorites to potentially helm the Justice Department if the 45th President were to be re-elected.  Clark has also suffered the consequences of January 6^th firsthand: his description matched one of six co-conspirators included in Jack Smith’s federal indictment of President Trump for Clark’s alleged involvement in the events of January 6^th.  Even more incredulously, Clark was indicted on RICO charges drawn up by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, for the egregious “crime” of faithfully serving out his constitutional duties by attempting to ensure a fair and orderly election process in Georgia, while so many of his DOJ colleagues darted in the opposite direction.  Clark is on a shortlist of but a handful of lawyers – alongside folks like John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani – who actually took their constitutional oaths seriously while the rest of the world (or at least a critical share of the federal government) was kowtowed into silence by forces within the deep state that worked twenty-four-seven to expel President Trump from national politics from the day he descended the famous gilded escalator.  

A student of Soviet history, Clark spoke about the unnerving parallels between what is happening in America right now, and what occurred in the Soviet Union of the late 1980s during his college years, of which he has great knowledge from his studies, never thinking that someday he, some thirty years later, would find himself a main player targeted by a Sovietesque operation on the American homeland, to shred what last vestiges of the Constitution remains to pieces.  Literary references abounded in the remarks of speakers at Bedminster. It is no exaggeration to liken Clark’s current white martyrdom to the agonies suffered by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, an outspoken Soviet expatriate, dissident, and something of a martyr himself, whom Clark explicitly invoked at Bedminster.  Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece, Gulag Archipelago, is never far from the lips these days of those who mingle in conservative circles – a tragic prophecy of communist-like methods now being deployed with impunity in the nation’s capital. 

Always cutting against the weightiness at Bedminster are great moments of levity.  Garish paintings depicting President Trump in theatrical action poses and other patriotic, over-the-top scenes were auctioned off to attendees, who eagerly placed bids on their favorite renderings.  The audience was beguiled by MAGA’s resident court jester and Trump impressionist par excellence, Shawn Farash, who charmed the Commander-in-chief with an imitation that has since gone viral, generating millions of hits along the way.  Even though the festivities were against a very somber backdrop, not only with respect to the J6 stories that were of course the night’s immediate focus, but even more urgent, President Trump was forced to soldier down to Georgia just two days later – an indignity for anyone, let alone a President of the United States, that would break the resolve of any lesser man – the mood of the room was euphoric with revelers and jokesters strutting about the lavish dining hall late into the evening. 

The jubilant atmosphere owes itself to the fact that MAGA is a battle tested movement, having gone through the firestorm as a collective family.  This persecution has only strengthened the bonds of the MAGA faithful, the most devoted of whom were in attendance at Bedminster.  The outcome has been a ragtag coalition of happy warriors, whose tenacity cannot be broken by the great uncertainty surrounding the trials of the January 6^th prisoners, now at the mercy of a justice department that would prefer to persecute political opponents rather than faithfully apply the law.

Another prevalent theme of the night was the elephant in the room: namely, the lack of full-throated support by Republican lawmakers, who have at best talked a big game about the injustices and persecution of January 6^th victims, while doing little, if anything, policy wise to correct this most heinous wrong.  The fact that the only two lawmakers in attendance – President Trump and Congressman Gohmert – were not currently in office, speaks to the broader impotency of Republicans and conservatives, at both federal and state levels, to rally on behalf of their most vulnerable citizens.  Indeed, the very need for a Patriot Freedom Project was because of Republican inaction.  If Republicans unified at even half the rate of Democrats, who have an uncanny ability to march in lockstep on any issue of consequence, and most especially, the persecution of their political enemies, it would go a long way towards remedying so many of the problems we currently face as a country.  In particular, it would go a long way towards correcting the injustices of January 6^th defendants, virtually all of whom are now victims of cruel and unusual punishments, in express violation of the Eighth Amendment.  A show of unity would render a fatal blow to the political persecution and witch-hunt of President Trump, whose poll numbers jump to the moon with each successive indictment, showcasing the broader support among the American people for the now legendary status MAGA has obtained.

In response to this great need, Cynthia Hughes has partnered with Ed Martin.  Martin is the President of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, filling the shoes in both roles of the late conservative icon, Phyllis Schlafly, an early supporter of President Trump before her passing in September 2016.  Hughes and Martin, in coordination with a production team led by renowned MAGA-activist Alex Bruesewitz, who was also a featured speaker at Bedminster, have filmed a two-part documentary series focused on the stories of several January 6^th victims, entitled Due Process Denied.  The documentary features commentaries from some of the speakers aforementioned: Congressman Gohmert, Jeff Clark, Shawn Farash, Geri Perna, and several other prominent January 6^th defendants, like Derrick Evans, who is now running for congress in West Virginia, and some of their lawyers. Some of the featured defendants are now either awaiting trial or in the process of being sentenced by the deep state.  The documentary – which was accompanied by a book, published under the same name and co-authored by Hughes – demonstrates how grassroots organizations like the Patriot Freedom Project are stepping up to fill the void where the politicians have failed.  

It also goes to show the power of these kinds of groups – and the need for donors to potentially reroute their focus and resources from members of congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz to the activist organizations who are doing the jobs of the congresspeople who may speak a good game on J6 matters, but overwhelmingly continue to sit on their hands.  So far, Congress has been found wanting in enacting critical policies that would help the J6 victims.  These include: releasing the outstanding J6 CCTV footage, of which tens of thousands of hours remain under lock and key; spreading more awareness for (or at the bare minimum, visiting) the victims who rot in horrific conditions in the DC gulag, and, short of their release, putting measures in place to either improve their conditions drastically, or relocate them to better facilities, as was the case for Cynthia’s nephew, Timothy, who described the NJ federal prison as a “resort” compared to what he experienced in Washington.  Furthermore, the motion to vacate remains on the table, the outcome of the extremely contentious House Speakership vote from January, and should be used by ambitious House Republicans to demand more from Kevin McCarthy – resources, activism, awareness – to put an end once and for all to this witch-hunt that has plagued our country for nearly a decade now.

For the time being, the Patriot Freedom Project will continue to spread its message and not be kowtowed into silence.  Cynthia Hughes has a full slate of events planned across a handful of states in the months ahead, featuring some of the notable guests that were honored at Bedminster.  Ultimately, there is no stopping the kind of activism the PFP does until each and every last unjustly incarcerated J6 prisoner is finally let free, and this dreadful chapter in American history is put to a close once and for all.  We can only hope and pray for that eventuality, one that will necessarily require President Trump’s re-election in 2024.  

In a role reversal of what is happening today, there was a moment when the Red Scare of the 1950s reached a point of peak paranoia, captured in that famous confrontation between Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy and Boston lawyer Joseph Welch.  Welch was recruited by the army to defend its interests against the allegations of widespread communist infiltration by McCarthy and his surrogates.  Tensions reached their boiling point when Welch challenged McCarthy, asking him point blank: “Have you no sense of decency?”  That ultimately became a rallying cry that evaporated McCarthy’s support virtually overnight, and for better or worse, but an end to the hysteria of that moment in time.  

There is a need for a similar sort of coming-to-Jesus moment in American political life today: a great awakening that must jolt the national consciousness from its hypnotic stupor, and engender widespread realization that the persecution of political opponents, regardless of where one stands ideologically, is always and everywhere a surefire recipe for disaster. One that can rupture the Union in ways that would make the strife of the Civil War look tame by comparison.  May God spare us before it is too late.

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Paul Ingrassia is a Law Clerk at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club. He is also a two-time Claremont Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, and Rumble.