‘We are rotting in jail’: Capitol rioter demands Trump give 6 January speech to back him and co-prisoners

‘We are rotting in jail because we stood up for what you told us to stand up for,’ Edward Jacob Lang says

One of the accused in the 6 January Capitol Hill riots has pleaded for help from former President Donald Trump as well as accused him of abandoning “political prisoners” on the eve of the first anniversary of the insurrection.

In a telephonic interview from jail, Edward Jacob Lang, 25, said that he was “disappointed” with Mr Trump for not rallying behind the 6 January prisoners.

“It just shows how far we have fallen,” he told far-right television host Stew Peters on The Stew Peters Show on 5 January. “Where is our rally tomorrow? There should be a hundred thousand people in DC tomorrow at the very minimum … I am so disappointed with Trump and the American people at large that just do not get behind the January 6 political prisoners,” he added.

On 4 January, Mr Trump cancelled a planned speech and press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to commemorate the Capitol riots.

Mr Lang said that the 6 January prisoners had been imprisoned for standing up for democratic rights and accused the Biden administration of ill-treating them.

“What we are getting in here is exactly what you should expect from a communist regime that is trying to silence political dissidents,” he alleged. “I feel like I am in a Taipei prison, and I spoke out against the government. I sing the national anthem and I get punched for it.”

He added that he was not allowed to meet his family. “I can see people with their families and children. But I can’t meet my parents,” he said.

Lang went on to implore the former president to stand up for other convicts like him. “I feel like I have been abandoned by the political hierarchy, our leaders, our senators our president,” he said. “President Trump, where are you? You better do a press conference, man. We are rotting in jail because we stood up for what you told us to stand up for!”

Follow live updates on the January 6 anniversary

Mr Lang has been accused of hitting a police personnel with a baseball bat during last year’s violent insurrection at the Capitol building by pro-Trump rioters looking to subvert the results of the November 2020 election.

He faces 13 counts relating to the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

A judge has ruled out a pretrial release.

Last week, he had made a similar appeal to the American people to support the 6 January accused in a telephone interview with Newsmax, which was disconnected mid-call by jail authorities.