Habeas corpus petition demands Jeremy Brown be released under President Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon

After more than two weeks of frustration and waiting, an attorney for pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court in Atlanta demanding his release under a pardon from President Donald J. Trump.

The step became necessary because someone in federal law enforcement told U.S. marshals not to release Brown under President Trump’s pardon, said defense attorney Carolyn Stewart, who likened the situation to abduction and imprisonment.

‘Someone please tell President Trump.’

“It’s a shadow governor inside either the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Marshals, or the U.S. Bureau of Prisons,” Stewart told Blaze News.

“What person took authority without any judicial court process or substantive due process to abduct Jeremy Brown to FCI Atlanta,” Stewart asked, “when he was never in the federal BOP prior to being taken to D.C. for trial months earlier? No judge issued a transfer order.”

Blaze News contacted FCI Atlanta for comment on the habeas corpus filing and an explanation of why Brown is still being held but did not receive a reply by press time. Blaze News also contacted the DOJ for comment.

The
102-page habeas corpus filing details how Brown’s 2023 conviction on weapons possession and other charges was directly related to the Jan. 6 protest and rioting at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

“On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued a pardon to Mr. Brown which reads ‘grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,’” the petition reads.

A writ of
habeas corpus — Latin for “you have the body” — compels law enforcement authorities “to produce a prisoner they are holding, and to justify the prisoner’s continued confinement,” according to U.S. Courts.

Brown’s defense attorney has argued for more than two weeks that her client should be released under the pardon issued to Brown by President Trump on Jan. 20. Brown’s weapons-possession case was tried in Tampa but was started in the District of Columbia and authorized by a D.C. magistrate judge as part of the FBI’s massive Jan. 6 investigation.

Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown was a Green Beret and served more than 20 years in special forces.
Photos courtesy of Tylene Aldridge

The U.S. Department of Justice and a federal district judge have both described the case
as being related to Jan. 6 in court filings since at least July 2022.

Brown was charged in federal court with possession of two short-barrel weapons, two fragmentation hand grenades, and documents prosecutors claimed were classified and related to national defense.

Brown said the grenades were planted in his recreational vehicle, and prosecutors could not tie the explosives to him via DNA, fingerprints, carpet fibers, or even a dog hair found under one of the devices. He said the firearms were heirlooms that originally belonged to his grandfather and his late brother.

When he was still housed at the D.C. jail on Jan. 20 and 21, Brown
said he was told the Florida case was the reason he would not be released. He was shortly moved to two county detention centers in Kentucky before ending up at FCI Atlanta, a low-security federal prison in Northern Georgia.

Brown had also been charged with misdemeanor crimes in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for his presence at the Capitol. Those charges were dismissed with prejudice by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in January, at the request of Edward R. Martin Jr., the new D.C. U.S. attorney.

Stewart said she has been unable to get answers from the U.S. Marshals. According to an update emailed from prison, Brown said a female U.S. marshal in D.C. told him he would not be released, and he was moved to Kentucky shortly after.

The U.S. Marshals Service is responsible for housing pretrial detainees and for the movement of federal prisoners between facilities or to court proceedings. In 2024, the U.S. Marshals received more than 101,000 prisoners. The agency spent $2.1 billion in 2024 on federal prisoners in U.S. Marshals custody.

“Nobody is standing up to admit their shadow governor action,” Stewart said. “We apparently have federal persons who without due process decide to disobey a pardon and abduct and imprison Americans. Someone please tell President Trump.”

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