Current and former Maine residents who were recipients of President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol said they were starting to process how Monday’s act of clemency would affect their lives.
Trump’s pardons and commutations to roughly 1,500 defendants in Jan. 6 cases apply to 15 people with Maine ties. The majority did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday or had phone numbers that were not in operation. Several of them or their family members shared feelings of gratitude, bitterness and lingering anger.
Trump instructed the Bureau of Prisons and Justice Department after Monday’s inauguration to immediately release all Jan. 6 inmates while halting any pending cases. It was among the most controversial of the flurry of executive orders he issued upon returning to office and came after his allies had suggested he would pardon those charged for non-violent offenses.
Trump instead also offered clemency to violent rioters who assaulted police officers trying to defend the Capitol while Congress sought to certify former President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.
Matthew Brackley, a former state Senate candidate from Waldoboro, received a 15-month prison sentence in May 2024 after he pleaded guilty to pushing through Capitol Police officers and leading a crowd toward the Senate chamber.
Brackley was at a federal prison in Devens, Massachusetts, and said he and other Jan. 6 offenders were released around 2 a.m. Tuesday. He expected the pardon but did not have any “direct communication” with the Trump administration ahead of Tuesday.
“I’m grateful for the pardon and happy to be home with my family,” Brackley said in a text message Tuesday.
His wife stayed at a hotel near the prison “in anticipation of picking me up,” Brackley said. He recalled watching Trump sign pardon paperwork on the news. Around 5 p.m. Monday, a lieutenant came to Brackley’s dorm to announce that Jan. 6 inmates “would be released as soon as the paperwork came through.”
“The dorm erupted in cheers for us,” Brackley said, adding he plans on “sharing my story after I have some time to settle back in.”
Michael Gerard Fournier was one of the 10 current and former Mainers who faced misdemeanor charges that were typically for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6 but not assaulting police or damaging property.
Fournier, who said his family is from Portland but that he lives out of state, was described by prosecutors as an “active and aggressive participant” but noted he surrendered to the FBI and was videotaped apparently stopping another rioter from stealing a painting inside the Capitol.
Fournier, an Army veteran, served a 30-day prison sentence in New Jersey and then began a 12-month probation term before receiving Trump’s pardon. In a phone interview Monday, Fournier railed against Biden, referred to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and certain Republicans as “RINOs,” and criticized “D.C. swamp creatures.”
Fournier also said his life was “turned upside down” after he was charged in the Jan. 6 case.
“I can’t get employment,” he said.
Other Mainers who faced Jan. 6 charges either did not answer the phone or declined to confirm their identities when reached for comment Monday and Tuesday.
David Ball Jr., of Sanford, was sentenced last January to two years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor offense related to entering the Capitol. Attorneys for Ball, the owner of a glass repair company, had previously said he was “extraordinarily remorseful for his actions,” but prosecutors disagreed, noting he had posted on social media that he was punished “for raising my hand and saying ‘USA’ on that day in the Capitol building.”
A man who identified himself as David Ball Sr. answered a phone number associated with the younger Ball on Tuesday and questioned why he would want to talk with “newspapers.”
“You guys spread the lies Joe Biden told for years,” the man said before telling a reporter to “have a good day” and hanging up.
BDN writer Marie Weidmayer contributed to this report.
