Not Everyone Accepted Trump’s Pardons

President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons for Jan. 6 defendants on Monday, however, a 72-year-old woman known as the “J6 Praying Grandma” has said she will not accept her pardon.

A U.S. Magistrate Judge sentenced Rebecca Lavrenz to one-year probation — the first six months in home confinement without internet access — and fined her $103,000 in August after she was convicted of four misdemeanor crimes for spending about 10 minutes inside the U.S. Capitol Building during the Jan. 6 riot. Trump pardoned her and over 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants Monday, but Lavrenz told KOAA News5 that she is refusing the pardon because she wants to see her case through the appeals process, get her convictions overturned based on the First Amendment, and keep her case from ever setting a precedent. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Lawyer Of ‘J6 Praying Grandma’ Says Potentially Record Fine Could ‘Financially Destroy Her’)

“I had no intention of being where I am today, but when the public of the United States, we the people of America, see a 72-year-old grandmother, great grandmother, with an ankle monitor on, banned from the Internet, can’t get out of her house except on certain hours of the week, then that wakes them up, and they say, ‘If this could happen to her, then what would happen to me?’” she told the outlet.

David McDivitt, Lavrenz’s attorney, told KOAA News5 that his client is legally allowed to reject Trump’s pardon and that it does not stop her from appealing her conviction.

Lavrenz said she peacefully entered the Capitol Building through the East Rotunda doors and only stayed for minutes. She also believes the doors were opened from the inside and that God wanted her to “carry [His] presence” into the building.

“I got this thought, and I know it was from the Lord, and he said, ‘Rebecca, if those barriers come down and the doors open, I want you to carry my presence into the Capitol,’” Lavrenz told the outlet.

“I didn’t touch anything,” she went on to say. “I was swept up with the crowd. It was like a big rush going into the Capitol. There on the video, Capitol footage, video, there’s a gentleman, a police officer, right beside me, almost like a door greeter at Walmart, just saying hi to me, and I was just talking to him. He never told me to leave the building. And so I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I really didn’t.”

Trump vowed to pardon a “large portion” of Jan. 6 defendants throughout his presidential campaign. After signing the “full, complete and unconditional pardons,” Trump described the federal government’s treatment of the defendants as “outrageous.”

“What they’ve done to these people is outrageous,” the president said Monday evening. “We hope they come out tonight. Frankly, they’re expecting it.”