The way Tom Caldwell sees it, his own government wanted him dead.
He said he was tortured while incarcerated at the Central Virginia Regional Jail after his arrest in an early morning SWAT operation in January 2021 on the Jan. 6, 2021, charges. He said he was kept in solitary confinement and regularly beaten. Prison officials later said they could not substantiate his claims.
Caldwell was supported only by his strong Christian faith and his wife, Sharon.
“I spent 53 days there and was assaulted every fetid day. I don't think it was their hope that I would survive,” said Caldwell, 70, of Berryville, Virginia. If I had died there, their version is the only one that would have come to light. And all these ordeals could have been avoided if they had just gone to everyone else and said, “It's the dead man's fault.'' ”
Caldwell's persistence resulted in what he considers a miracle. On January 10, more than two years after his trial concluded in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., he was sentenced to time served and a $100 fine, with one misdemeanor charge still pending. I received it. , Judge Amit Mehta told Caldwell he had been punished enough and sent him home as a free man.
“Of the hundreds of J6ers deserving of presidential pardon, Mr. Caldwell is undoubtedly number one in equal measure.”
“Almost from day one, I have always prayed that I would touch the hearts of the judges and help them discern truth from lies, see the real situation, and do the right thing,” Sharon Caldwell said. told Blaze News. .
Tom Caldwell said he was restless the night before his sentencing hearing.
“We didn't know which direction it was going to go,” Tom Caldwell said. “We knew that the truth was on our side. But until then, the truth is not enough to set us free, rather than a system that convicts everyone until proven innocent.” It was.”
Caldwell's January 6 nightmare began on January 19, 2021, when she stood on her front porch in her underwear, under the laser sight of FBI special forces who raided the farm. He was handcuffed, dragged across the lawn, and thrown on top. The hood of a government sedan. Caldwell said the agent drove his knee into the small of his back, where a metal brace from his U.S. Navy service held his spine in place.
Thomas Caldwell will be in federal court in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 2022, for trial on the January 6 charges.Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
When he turned around, he saw Sharon in a nightgown on the porch, arms outstretched and an FBI M4 carbine pointed at her.
he remembers thinking. please don't let me Please kill my wife! ”
Investigators took Caldwell back to his home around January 6 and burned him to death. Caldwell was eventually told he was charged with trespassing and breaking into the U.S. Capitol.
“Are you crazy? You're going to come in here and point a gun in my wife's face for trespassing?” Mr. Caldwell said indignantly. The agent said, “So you entered the Capitol.”
This was the government's first of many mistakes in prosecuting Mr. Caldwell. Although Mr. Caldwell was not an Oath Keeper, he was later accused of leading the Oath Keepers in a conspiracy to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes by a joint session of Congress on January 2nd. 6.
Defense attorney David Fisher said the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Caldwell amounted to virtually nothing during the four-year prosecution period.
“They knew we were completely peaceful. But that's not what they told the jury.”
“In January 2021, the government accused Tom Caldwell of being the mastermind behind a plot to cross the Potomac River from Virginia, land in a D-Day-style boat, and forcefully occupy the U.S. Capitol,” Fischer said. he told Blaze News.
“Four years later, after a jury acquitted him of seditious conspiracy and all other charges, Mr. Caldwell was fined $100 for deleting one Facebook thread,” Fisher said. , said it unsuccessfully asked Judge Mehta to acquit Caldwell on that thread. crime of tampering with evidence.
“That was wrong.”
Fisher saw a strong message in Mehta's sentence that could lead to his client's release.
“If a progressive Washington, D.C., jury says through its verdict, and a widely respected federal judge appointed by President Obama through his ultra-light sentence, then the government was definitely wrong.” Fisher said. “Of the hundreds of J6ers deserving of a presidential pardon, Mr. Caldwell is undoubtedly the foremost among them.”
On November 29, 2022, a jury found Caldwell not guilty of felony seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to obstruct a member of Congress from performing his duties.
He was convicted of obstructing an official proceeding, and the charges were eventually dropped following a landmark 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. As a result, he was charged with document falsification for deleting the Jan. 6 photo thread on Facebook.
Prosecutors had asked for 14 years in prison for Caldwell, ahead of his original sentencing date of May 2023. Even after it became clear that he would not be charged with obstruction of justice, the Justice Department asked for a 14-year sentence. 4 years imprisonment Caldwell's January 10, 2025 hearing was approaching.
Thomas E. Caldwell and his wife Sharon join a large crowd at the Peace Fountain on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.Photo by Sharon Caldwell.
“From the moment they elevated me to the top of their attacks on the American people, it was clear that they did no investigation against me before arresting me,” Caldwell said. “If you look at the original arrest warrant, it was a false prediction. Everything was wrong. And what they did in the months that followed was the next 20-odd months to prove their error. I was trying to dig up something across the board.”
Prosecutors have used Caldwell's often colorful language in private, coded conversations with Oath Keepers who were staying at his farm for a rally in Washington, D.C., after the November 2020 presidential election. He criticized her in a message chat.
“He orchestrated an unprecedented threat to the district and the election process.”
“I think we're going to have to get violent to stop this,” Caldwell told Jessica Watkins in a text message on Nov. 23, 2020. year. Cheer up and see you again. You might have to fight next time because you're like me. ”
Prosecutors accused Caldwell of lying on the stage. They are organizing a “quick response force” of Oath Keepers in Virginia who can swoop in with long guns at a moment's notice to stop Congress from recognizing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. He said he contributed. Caldwell is said to have come up with the idea of loading duck boats with weapons and crossing the Potomac River.
“He orchestrated an unprecedented threat to the district and the election process. Armed quick response units were stationed in the D.C. suburbs, stockpiled with rifles and ammunition, and his co-conspirators prepared to take those weapons to their boots on the ground. ,” prosecutors wrote. May 2023.
“Pure fantasy”
All of this “turned out to be pure fantasy,” Fisher said in a May 2023 sentencing memo.
The Caldwells spent most of January 6th at the Peace Fountain. They ended up walking up the stairs to the Lower West Terrace for “about five minutes,” Sharon Caldwell said.
“Everything we do is completely peaceful. It's all caught on video. It's all caught on their CCTV video,” Sharon Caldwell said. “So they knew that neither of us had committed any violent acts. They knew that we were completely peaceful. But that's not what they told the jury. That’s not true.”
Caldwell said he and Sharon prayed constantly during the Jan. 10 sentencing hearing because “we didn't know which way it was going to go.”
“We were praying while we heard this commotion from other tables, and we just prayed to the Lord and said, 'Lord, you know what the truth is.' We believe in you. We believe in you,” Caldwell said. “And as Sharon says, 'Let the judges be discerning and have the courage to do the right thing in this politically charged environment.'
In the happy hours before the nightmare that became January 6, Thomas and Sharon Caldwell were enjoying a concert on the green.Photo by Sharon Caldwell.
While the Justice Department “spewed out all kinds of bile,” Fischer was “very direct and forthright, reminding the judge of how many times the prosecution was wrong,” Caldwell said. . “There's a three-letter word that's more direct, but I don't use it. But they got it wrong over and over again. He just reminded them of that and said, 'Hey, Judge. , come on.” sufficient. '”
Caldwell said the experience strengthened their faith and brought their marriage closer together, even though he “didn't make it easy” on her.
“Sharon [was] Dealing with your own problems. She was foundational, just like Jesus,” Caldwell said. “And Dave picked me up from the other side. And personally, I'm just speaking personally, if it wasn't for Sharon, if it wasn't for Dave, if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. I couldn't have endured all this and probably would have died in prison. And I'm going to stand by it forever and ever.”
“This will be an incredible blessing.”
Caldwell is 100% disabled due to progressive deterioration of his back from a mortar shell injury he suffered while on a classified mission in the Philippines. He was a naval intelligence officer. During a lengthy surgery on January 6, he underwent a total hip replacement and spinal fusion.
Through it all, support from strangers across the country in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, South Carolina and many other places kept the Caldwell family going.
“They kept us afloat and strengthened our resolve,” Tom Caldwell said. “Frankly, they are directly responsible for helping us hold onto the last assets that the Biden Justice Department has not yet been able to steal from us. That's what I grew up with. This is a small farm.”
The Caldwells had to sell farm equipment and animals to pay for his defense, and at one point lost their Veterans Affairs health benefits, but Tom and Sharon Caldwell said they meant no harm and wanted revenge. He said he was not.
“This may sound strange to some people, but given what we've suffered, Sharon and I have no interest in giving back,” Caldwell said. “But it would be a good thing if the deceit and horrible conduct of the Department of Justice and those pulling its strings were exposed.”
Caldwell said he was acutely aware of how rarely judges issue time-limited sentences, and Fisher acknowledged that.
“He said that in his 20-plus years in the federal system, he can only remember a handful of times where a judge would say, 'Yes, the deadline has passed.' This is incredible. It will be a blessing.”
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