Cowboys for Trump founder says he will reject a presidential pardon, if offered

Couy Griffin doesn’t want a presidential pardon and will turn it down if offered, he said Monday. Instead, he wants the courts to exonerate him for his actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A former Otero County commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump, Griffin became one of the most visible faces of the Jan. 6 attack when he stood on a terrace outside the Capitol Building and recorded videos of the raucous protest.

Throughout his campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to pardon many of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago. Griffin is one of at least five New Mexicans who potentially could receive a pardon if Trump does so.

The Associated Press reported late Monday that Trump issued hundreds of pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol among his first acts after being sworn in as president.

Griffin said Monday that he’s not interested.

“I want my justification to come from the courts, not a pardon,” Griffin said in a phone interview. “Pardons are given to guilty people and I’m not guilty in what I’ve been convicted of.”

Griffin was convicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March 2022 of entering a restricted area outside the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced Griffin to 14 days imprisonment, but credited him for 20 days he served in jail after his arrest. McFadden also acquitted Griffin of a disorderly conduct charge.

One of Griffin’s attorneys in that case called it a “foolish decision” to turn down a presidential pardon if offered.

David Smith, a Virginia attorney who represented Griffin in the Capitol breach case, said Griffin is likely to receive a pardon because he did not engage in violence or even enter the Capitol Building that day.

“To the extent he wants to listen to me, even though I’m not technically his lawyer anymore, I would strongly advise him to accept any pardon he receives,” Smith said Monday in a phone interview.

“It just seems very, very foolish to try to reject a pardon if one comes through, because that would certainly relieve him of a lot of the negative consequences of being convicted,” Smith said.

Griffin became a national figure during the Jan. 6 attack when he recorded videos from the Capitol terrace with hundreds of noisy flag-waving protestors standing behind him.

Griffin “got up on the wall to face the crowd, and was able to borrow a bullhorn to lead the group in prayer,” according to a statement written by a Washington, D.C., Metropolitan police detective.

“It’s a great day for America,” Griffin said in the video, wearing a black Stetson and western-style shirt. “The people are showing they’ve had enough.”

Griffin said Monday that he didn’t realize he was violating federal laws by standing on the Capitol terrace that day.

“If I would have known it was restricted, I wouldn’t have gone in there,” he said. “I respect the law. I’m not a, not a lawbreaker.”

Griffin said he has appealed his District Court conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a reversal.

“Pardons are political, Supreme Court decisions aren’t,” he said.

Griffin’s federal conviction ended his career as an Otero County commissioner by a judge’s order in 2022.

First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew ordered Griffin’s immediate removal from office for violating a clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars people who participate in insurrections from holding public office.

The clause in the 14th Amendment was intended to bar former Confederates from regaining office after the Civil War. Griffin’s removal from office marked the first time since 1869 the clause had been invoked.

Unknown is whether Griffin would be eligible to hold office again if he received a pardon for his federal crime.

Griffin said Monday he has no interest in serving again on the Otero County Commission.

“There’s a new commissioner in there now,” he said. “The only way that I would get that seat back is if I were to run for it again and I don’t see myself doing that.”