Matt Brackley had a sense of foreboding long before the FBI showed up at his home two days after he announced his intention to run for the Maine State Senate in 2022. He was already struck with what he calls a “heavy heart” a year earlier, on January 6, 2021, before leaving his Washington, DC, hotel room to go hear President Donald Trump address a rally on the Ellipse. Before leaving his hotel room, he dropped to his knees and — for the first time in five years — prayed to God for guidance.
At two a.m. on Tuesday morning, Brackley was released from a federal detention facility at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts, having served four months of a fifteen-month sentence for his involvement in events at the U.S. Capitol that day. He is one of 15 Mainers who were pardoned and whose cases were dismissed as one of Trump’s first acts after being inaugurated to his second term as president on Monday.
While Brackley pleaded guilty to aggravated assault of a police officer for having pushed his way into a restricted area of the Capitol, he is adamant that he did no physical harm to the officers he pushed past and did, in fact, help a female Capitol Police officer out of harm’s way and to safety. For his efforts at the time, he was pepper-sprayed and briefly featured on national television news with milk streaming out of his eyes. His interactions with the criminal justice system did not begin until a year later and were, in his telling, an “eye-opening” experience.
It took eighteen months from the first FBI visit to his home to the moment a cavalcade of six SUVs descended on his Lincoln County home on July 21, 2023, to arrest him, shackle him, and take him to Portland for processing. In March the following year, he pleaded guilty to a single charge rather than the eight that the government had initially leveled against him. Citing an average 95 percent conviction rate, Brackley says he saw little reason to go to trial, and at no point did he deny his presence or actions at the Capitol. In recalling his experiences — whether being pardoned and released, prosecuted and convicted, or the events of January 6th themselves — there is a calm in Brackley’s demeanor. But the correction systems, he concludes, is “tragic.”
“There is no rehabilitation going on,” he says, adding that many wind up in prison because their backs got pushed up against a wall.
In Brackley’s case, he was pressed quite literally between two sides. As Trump was finishing his address to the rally, Brackley noticed men with radios and, in what he called paramilitary garb, herding rally-goers towards the Capitol. Curious, he followed at some distance. When he reached the base of the Capitol, he joined in what he characterized as a largely peaceful group of protestors singing songs, though some were being chased around by police. But then law enforcement threw flash-bangs into the crowd, one of which lodged shrapnel in the cheek of a woman standing near him. This, he said, changed the mood, and he grew angry.
Marching up the left side of the Capitol to the Senate, he said the police had pulled back entirely, allowing the crowd to surge forward. The doors he entered were open, and none of the police he encountered told him or those around him not to go in, he said. He didn’t encounter any resistance until after going through the rotunda. Then a policeman shoved him, and this, like the earlier use of flash-bangs, prompted him to push through two policemen, which is the basis of his “aggravated assault” charge. Today he regrets doing so and, given another opportunity, would not repeat those steps. But he doesn’t regret having protested what he still believes was a stolen election.
Admitting to what he calls “unconstructive” behavior on January 6th, Brackley says the whole episode awakened in him a desire to be more active in public life. It was only after returning home that he decided to run against an entrenched state senator, Eloise Vitelli, who at the time was the Democratic majority leader. He later briefly became the chair of the Sagadahoc County GOP before moving to Waldoboro. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 25th, Brackley will be speaking about his experience at the Topsham Baptist Church.
If the MW can get a response from Susie C about this report, it would be awesome
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Honesty is no longer a deeply held cultural value in America.
Sarah K need to get back on her assigned corner. She be running her mouth. It’s wack!
Thanks for posting this! I’d love to hear him speak, but I’m unable to. Would appreciate either a live stream or posted video!
May God bless you, sir, and good luck in your political career.
@Mainewire PLEASE!
Remove the GRIFTING POSTER,
SARA K
Biden Supporters should try it. Nothing strengthens your party resolve like being a political prisoner. Ask Steve Bannon or Tommy Robinson
Mark Wheelin
Fat chance. I’ve been writing and e-mailing our senator for months and can’t get a response. I don’t expect a great one to respond personally, but evidently even the staff is too busy to hear what the people of MAINE have to say.
Matt Brackley, welcome home!
Maybe you can help us “awaken” the “woke” side as to what’s really going on in this country. We’ll need all the help we can get to right way too many wrongs.
I do not believe in coincidences. What you went through is clearly wrong. This happened to you for a reason. Follow your heart as guidance is always there if you check in.
Brackley spoke compellingly to a packed audience at a church in Topsham this afternoon (Sat.). One banshee and another Commie made it through security who just had to make their voices heard. They were quickly dispatched. These morons just don’t get it: We won; they lost.
Ah, the scent of Law Order as the president pardons violent criminals. This is an insult to our justice system and all the people who volunteer to run elections in all states. Our fiends and neighbors who are just trying their best. Truly scary and disheartening that this person is being touted as a hero.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Ps. The election wasn’t stolen.
political prisoner my ass…. he’s a felon and had no business forcing his way into our federal buildings. He got what he had coming just like the rest of them and the felon who decided to pardon him should be sitting in prison, not in the white house.
Chris Crash Barry can’t split wood.
P.S
Trump won in 2016 (hitlery was upset), Trump won in 2020 (exiled to Mar A Lago), Trump won AGAIN in 2024 (landslide, popular and electoral college). Trump is a three term president.
P.S.S
How come Crash Chris Barry’s hitler youth like followers hate the Palestinian’s and Jeffersonian Americans (MAGA)!?
Weird
Brackley noticed men with radios and, in what he called paramilitary garb, herding rally-goers towards the Capitol
That needs to be investigated — regardless of who it was. Likewise who was behind the two pipeBOMBs… If they can track that to a MetroCard, they can track it down to a person…
And if Senator Collins won’t call for this, would Senator Golden really be worse???
So much for “Back the Blue.”
Alexei Navalny was a political prisoner. Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner. Brackley was not a ‘political prisoner’. He acknowledged assaulting police officers, a felony, and was tried and convicted in a court of law.
Coming from a long family line of law enforcement (the proud Blue Line) and veterans (the bravest of the brave), pardoning these criminals is a disgrace to our country and its laws.
PS Trump winning in 2024 does not prove he won in 2020. Further education is needed to address this faulty logic which can only be remedied by critical thinking skills.
PPS 2024 was also a fair election. Congratulations, truly. The people spoke. Trump won. Biden conceded. The peaceful transfer of power resumes. The country holds, for now.
One felon loving another felon. MAGA!
We need to stop addressing as “patriots” the morons who were duped into invading the capital and, in some cases, assaulting the police who were trying to protect it. Matt seems like a well meaning person who was one of these dupes. His reliance on outfits like the Epoch Times as a news source is clearly one of the roots of his (and our!) problem.
Man you fucks are dumber than rocks. I can’t believe you are supporting this treasonous piece of shit.