A young military veteran and graduate of Briarwood Christian School, Kaleb Dillard, was preparing for a bright future with his fiance when he found himself facing up to eight years in federal prison for assaulting a U.S. Capitol police officer.
At his father's prompting, the Birmingham native attended Donald Trump's rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. Kaleb Dillard had doubts about the legitimacy of the election the previous November, but like the majority of the people attending the event, he never planned to protest or get caught up in the chaos that erupted at certain parts of Capitol Hill later that day.
"People were very optimistic that day that this is our last hope to really stop this stolen election. And you don't have to be fully on that train to be in that crowd and to say, I'm with people that I think really love this country and love the Lord, and this is a unique environment that I felt at home in," Kaleb Dillard explained on a recent episode of "1819 News: The Podcast."
Kaleb Dillard said he tried to get away from the crowd but was pushed to the front of the Capitol building and eventually inside.
"It's kind of like the whole mood — the whole atmosphere shifted in that moment when the gas started festering and staying there," he said. "People are screaming, and I'm like, man, I've got to fight my way out of the back of this crowd and try to move my way out of the back of the crowd. Door opens, I get pulled in on a wave of people.
"And as I get in, I pull my beanie off my face and instant relief from being out of the gas and being out from being crushed by people. And I turn around and I see an officer plugging the door, not letting anybody else in. And I didn't even think; I just acted, you know? And I went, grabbed him by the vest and pulled him down, pulled him out of the doorway. He lets go, falls to the ground. And, you know, I immediately go to help him up, and I was like, I'm sorry, dude. And he's like, don't touch me and throw my hands up. And this is all on video, you know what I mean? And so I say all that, that's the moment that's like, that's federal assault, you know? And by legal definition, that's federal assault."
Over the next four years, Kaleb Dillard would get arrested by an FBI SWAT team, get let out on a $5,000 bond, lose his fiance, meet his now wife Anna, and receive a 10-month sentence to be served in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Even when Kaleb Dillard faced a potential eight years in prison, Anna Dillard stood by him, confident that he was the one God had for her.
"In that moment of him telling me everything, I just had such a peace, and that was so profound and just overwhelming that I was like, okay, like, I clearly feel the Lord, hear the Lord saying like, this is going to be your husband," she said.
Kaleb Dillard said he plans to write a book about his time in prison, his treatment as a "J6er," his experience with the Department of Justice, and how God used all that for his good.
"We've just been so blessed. And it was just something that it was a total God thing because so many other Jan-sixers have it way, way worse. And, you know, the message of the story is not, oh my gosh, I cannot believe that I was so abused," he said. "It's really unfortunate because look at what they did and look at the money and the time and the resources that they spent on prosecuting someone like me. I do want people to know that because mainly because what a misallocation of funds that is for our government to be spending."
He continued, "There's so many facets of it that, again, just to be able to look at it from a Christian, very blessed and privileged perspective of like, oh, wow, yeah, like this is problematic, because I feel a lot of people who have gone through the DOJ and the federal system don't have the tools to really effectively articulate the problems that have gone on, but then to really tell the piece of- So we want that to be a part of the book… "The book just seems appropriate with how many details there are and how long this covers."
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on X and Facebook.
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