Nicholas Ochs, founder of the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Proud Boys, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Monday, along with nearly 1,600 others who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. 

The pardon comes as Ochs faced a slew of new charges related to his conduct on Jan. 6. Ochs told Civil Beat he appreciates the pardon but did nothing wrong.

“All of this happened because I’m a political dissident,” Ochs said. “That is why they went hard on me, for the reason of who I am.”  

Ochs pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding in 2022 and was sentenced to four years in federal prison for his part in the riot, which included throwing a smoke grenade at police and filming a co-defendant, Nicholas DeCarlo, scrawl the name of their social media channel, “Murder the Media,” on a memorial door inside the Capitol building.

That conviction was overturned after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the Justice Department had overreached in its interpretation of the law. Both Ochs and DeCarlo were released from prison in November. 

The Justice Department filed a new indictment against the duo on Jan. 15, just five days before Trump’s inauguration. They were charged with nine new counts related to the insurrection, including destruction of government property and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon.

With the swipe of Trump’s pen, those charges will now disappear.

Ochs, 38, is a former Marine who ran unsuccessfully for the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 2020 as a Republican. He moved to Florida before he was sentenced and lives there today. He now works for Tarantula Management, a talent agency and consulting firm founded by Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur.

Ochs told Civil Beat he didn’t have many words for Trump in response to the pardon other than a curt, “Thanks, bud.” But he said he hopes the president follows through on his promises of mass deportation and retribution.

Ochs said he does not regret his actions on Jan. 6 and considered himself a political prisoner. He also said he’s no longer a member of the extremist group the Proud Boys.

The Proud Boys are a neo-fascist group labeled by the FBI as extremists. Their leader, Enrique Tarrio, was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in initiating the Jan. 6 insurrection and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Tarrio was pardoned Monday along with others who organized or committed violence during the assault on the Capitol.

Ochs served nearly two years in a federal prison in North Carolina. During that time, he said he lost work and missed the birth of one of his children.

Before Ochs was arrested and even during court proceedings, he tried to downplay his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying at times that he was working as a journalist. But federal prosecutors pushed back on that narrative in court filings, describing Ochs as a “Proud Boys Elder” who was actively trying to subvert American democracy.

Prosecutors pointed to text exchanges between Ochs and other members of the Proud Boys on Nov. 7, 2020, shortly after Joe Biden was announced the winner of the presidency. Ochs said he hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would help overturn the results in Trump’s favor. 

“I’m pro violence but don’t blow your load too soon,” Ochs said in the text exchange. “Not to be an anti-murder buzzkill but I really think this ISN’T fucked. Once it is, let’s go wild.” 

Ochs attended the “stop the steal” rally in Washington on Jan. 6 and overran police barricades to get inside the Capitol building. Throughout the day he and DeCarlo filmed their exploits, laughing and smiling through the mayhem, which ultimately resulted in more than 140 police officers being injured. 

“These were no teenage pranks,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Loeb wrote in a DOJ sentencing memo. “By attempting to inject humor and a carnival atmosphere into the breach (a breach that had staffers hiding under desks and officers fearing for their lives), Ochs created an environment that downplayed the threat, normalized violence, and encouraged the rampant lawlessness that unfolded at the Capitol.”

Ochs is one of at least two people with Hawaiʻi ties who participated in the riots that day. 

In September, Alexander Poplin, an active duty U.S. Army servicemember, was arrested at Schofield Barracks on suspicion of assaulting a police officer with a flagpole after investigators found a video of him doing so. Poplin is alleged to have boasted on Facebook of his involvement in the violence, saying it “stood for something” as the mob “took our house back.”