With a stroke of the presidential pen, people charged in connection with the U.S. Capitol protest on Jan. 6, 2021, were free. Many had no idea how they would get home.
After President Donald Trump signed pardons and commutations on Jan. 20, an estimated 300 people were released from 75 prisons in 35 states, according to Gary Heavin, a Texas philanthropist who raised funds for an operation to meet each of the prisoners and help them get back home.
“Everyone was scrambling to make sure there were people at the gates of these prisons” to welcome the former prisoners and help them with basic needs, Heavin told The Epoch Times.
The volunteers ensured that the ex-prisoners “were warm and fed, with a hotel to go to, and a phone to reconnect to their families,” he said. Volunteers also provided transportation, including commercial airline tickets or flights via private jets, including one that Heavin owns.
These volunteers and the people they helped told The Epoch Times that emotions overflowed as they shared time together. They described relief that the prisoners were freed and could return home. But they also decried how the U.S. justice system handled the Jan. 6 cases, and expressed concern over the continuing challenges that the ex-prisoners face.
“There were bad actors on Jan. 6. But whatever stupid things they did—like breaking glass or turning a table over—four years in prison covers it, not 21,” Heavin said. “If we care about injustice, then we have to care about these people.”
After Trump won the Nov. 5 election, the volunteer groups began planning for pardons and commutations, Heavin said. Trump had campaigned on promises to free the Jan. 6 “political prisoners.” But no one knew if—or when—the order would come.
Within hours of his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences of serious offenders and pardoned the remaining 1,569 people.
The volunteers then set their plans in motion. Heavin and a second Texas pilot, Joe Heartsill, spent two and a half days executing Operation Airlift. From Jan. 21–23, they flew about 20 of the new releasees home; Heavin and his wife, Diane, say their plane traversed 8,000 miles.
Sharing Stories in Flight
As her husband flew the plane, Diane Heavin kept company with the passengers.
The Heavins shed tears as they heard tales of the prisoners’ ordeals and watched the freed men reunite with loved ones.
“I’ve never cried so much in my life,” Gary Heavin said, even though he has witnessed plenty of heartache while assisting people at scenes of earthquakes and hurricanes.
Helping those in need has been a major focus for the Heavins, even while they owned a major business, Curves fitness centers for women. In 2005, 13 years after the Heavins founded the company, Curves said it had expanded to 9,300 locations in 38 countries, making it the world’s 10th-largest franchise firm. The Heavins sold Curves in 2012 and retired, freeing up more time for philanthropy.
Each mission is an adventure, the Heavins say. They feel compelled to give back because they have been so successful.
“To whom much has been given, much is expected,“ Gary Heavin said. ”We’ve been very blessed, and honestly, rescuing people—you get more out of it than you put into it.”
Powerful Moments
The Heavins are parents of four, grandparents of five and great-grandparents of three. They were moved when they witnessed children reuniting with the prisoners.
Describing himself as “a manly guy who flies and stuff,” Gary Heavin said he teared up when he saw “a little girl who’s maybe 4 years old, hasn’t seen her father in two years, running, yelling, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’”
The Heavins also witnessed spouses burrowing heads into their loved ones’ chests and sobbing.
Diane Heavin said it affected her deeply when one of the prisoners exhibited what seemed to be a “PTSD moment,” referring to post-traumatic stress disorder. He suddenly became distrustful of her, saying, “Wait a minute; you know too much. You might be from the government.”
She spent several minutes convincing him that was untrue. Then he made a statement that hit her hard: “I didn’t know there were any good people left.” She replied: “Yes, there are a lot of good people.”
Asked about the former prisoners’ future, Diane Heavin said, “My hopes are that they can move on and not let this event define who they are. My fear is that they will be tainted with unforgiveness, bitterness, or unresolved anger.”
More Difficulties Loom
Diane Heavin said the releasees’ lives have been upended severely. One man told her “he just felt a great emptiness” and “he didn’t know where to begin to pick up the pieces,” she said.
Many of the released prisoners need to find work, but they don’t know how to overcome obstacles that their incarceration created. One man told Diane Heavin: “If I get a job and I don’t have a car, how am I going to get there? ... My credit’s been ruined while I was in prison for two years. So, you know, I can’t buy a car.”
Some have little or no family support after their marriages broke up and once-close relatives became estranged amid the politically charged prosecutions. And some Jan. 6 defendants “don’t have homes to go to,” Diane Heavin said.
“It really just breaks my heart that these people who were just standing up for their First Amendment rights could have been subjected to this kind of punishment, and then on top of that, lose everything,” she said.
If not for the volunteers helping the released prisoners, “a correctional officer told me that they would be let loose and sent to a bus station,” said Shelley Freeman, a volunteer who assisted Pete Schwartz. She told The Epoch Times that she paid out of her own pocket to provide housing, food, personal items, and a cellphone for him.
Like many Jan. 6 prisoners, he was held in a prison far from family members, making visits difficult or impossible. Schwartz was freed near Freeman’s California home—more than 2,000 miles away from his parents in Kentucky.
He returned to them via an airline ticket that American Patriot Relief purchased, Freeman said.
Nonviolent Man Grateful for Help
The first prisoner whom the Heavins picked up was Glenn Allen Brooks, 64. They flew him from Georgia to Virginia, where his sister lives.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Brooks was a latecomer to the U.S. Capitol; violent clashes between police and protesters happened before he arrived. He went inside the building to see what was happening, and sent photos to his church prayer group. Later, after offers of rewards for tips leading to suspected “insurrectionists,” a member of that prayer group reported Brooks to the FBI.
As a result, authorities interrogated Brooks twice, he told The Epoch Times. In July 2021, a SWAT team raided his home around 6 a.m., Brooks said, startling him as he read the Bible. After much legal wrangling, Brooks stood trial last year on allegations of disorderly conduct and trespassing. In September 2024, he began serving a six-month prison term.
On Inauguration Day, word had spread through Brooks’ prison that freedom might be imminent for him and two other Jan. 6 prisoners. But Brooks didn’t believe it until, as fellow inmates say, “you’re walking out the blue door,” which leads from that institution to the outside world.
A pair of “ambassadors” for the Patriot Freedom Project, Nicky and Tim Long, greeted Brooks with a hand-drawn posterboard that reads: “Patriot Glenn Brooks, are you ready to go home?”
The Longs handed Brooks a winter coat, four suitcases full of clothes, food, and an iPhone. He felt showered with love and blessings. They drove him to a hotel room, provided by the group. Hours later, the Longs took him to an airport in Savannah. There, the Heavins awaited with their private jet.
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