House Freedom Caucus's Ken Buck pushes back on misinformation about Jan. 6 defendants
WASHINGTON - Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., is pushing back on false claims made in a letter last month from El Paso County Republican Party Vice Chairman Todd Watkins about the treatment of defendants arrested or charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Buck’s response to Watkins marks an unusual move by the official who’s a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the House’s most conservative lawmakers. Some of these lawmakers have alleged that President Joe Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice to target former President Donald Trump who faces indictments in two federal cases - an allegation that has no proof.
And it's putting him at odds with some in his party, including prominent Biden administration critic Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA. It's a rare move for someone in the House Freedom Caucus to defend the prosecution of Jan. 6 defendants.
Watkins had claimed in his letter that Americans were “grossly mistreated and abused” by the legal system. His letter detailing these purported abuses was forwarded to the Colorado GOP Central Committee, in which more than 200 members signed with “full concurrence and support,” Buck wrote in a Sept. 1 response obtained by the Colorado Springs Independent.
“The letter makes a number of factually incorrect claims, and then proceeds to overstate the threat to our Republic based on these false claims,” Buck wrote. “There has been significant misinformation proliferated on the Internet about the status of the January 6th defendants, and I assume these Internet rumors are the source for much of the incorrect information contained in the letter.”
He wrote that Watkin’s claim that Jan. 6 defendants have been detained without bond for misdemeanor offenses is “pure fiction.” He added that while the D.C. jail is a “miserable place, rife with abuse and dangerous for even the most hardened criminal,” Watkin’s letter “misleads the reader by portraying worse conditions at the jail for Jan. 6 defendants.”
He also dismisses other claims made by Watkins, including allegations that there were violations of defendant's rights guaranteed under the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments, drawing on his experience as a former prosecutor.
Greene wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that she was “appalled" at the letter Buck wrote and claimed that she has witnessed the "unusually cruel punishment" of Jan. 6 defendants. She added that she can "personally vouch" for the concerns expressed by Watkins.
"Ken Buck’s letter to Mr. Watkins of the El Paso County GOP appeared to show full support of Biden’s Weaponized Government and a total disconnect from the cruel reality of J6 defendants and the American people,” Greene wrote.
Buck had previously taken divergent paths from other far-right conservative lawmakers on certain issues. Last month, for instance, the lawmaker warned Trump to stop potentially instigating his supporters amid his various criminal indictments.
“I think he absolutely needs to tell all Americans to stand down and allow the judicial system to take its course,” Buck said in an interview on MSNBC. “We trust judges, we trust jurors, we trust appellate courts. This isn’t over until it’s over.