Mitchell Todd Gardner wrote that he and other “hard working red blooded Americans” felt “obligated to act” by the words of “the most powerful man in the world.”

WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who bashed in a Capitol window, assaulted police officers with pepper spray and urged the mob to “pull the cops out” during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021, is asking a judge to grant him early release, saying he was “manipulated” by the former president and Fox News.

Mitchell Todd Gardner, who was wearing a Trump hat and a “Reagan Bush ’84” sweatshirt during the Capitol attack, yelled “pull the police out,” “pull the cops out,” and “grab their hands and pull them out” during the battle, and then unloaded a fire extinguisher-sized canister of OC spray on officers in the tunnel, according to evidence shown at trial. He then bashed a Capitol window and entered into a suite of Senate “hideaway” offices that were assigned to Republican senators, including one belonging to Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

Gardner wrote a memo, styled as a “Motion for Compassionate Release and/or Reduction of Sentence,” that was filed on the docket in his criminal case this week. In it, Gardner states that he and “so many other Americans” were “persuaded by then President Donald J. Trump that he had irrefutable evidence that he had been cheated by a ‘rigged election.’”

In his memo, Gardner writes that “a large group of hard working red blooded Americans” were influenced by Trump and “felt obligated to act on his behalf” to save the country.

Gardner’s memo cites the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s “2023 Criminal History Amendment,” which went into effect on Nov. 1, in arguing for a sentence reduction, though it is unclear if Gardner would actually be eligible under that amendment. Gardner, representing himself pro se, wrote the memo from the low-security federal prison at Fort Dix in New Jersey, where he’s being held.

Judge Amit P. Mehta, in March 2023, sentenced Gardner to 55 months, or about 4.5 years, in federal prison. With good time and credit for time served, the 36-year-old is currently scheduled for release on July 15, 2025, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.

Trump, Gardner wrote, was “the most powerful man in the world” and used his influence “to manipulate others in carrying out his missions while staying above the ‘fray.’” Gardner wrote that he and others felt “it was an obligation or patriotic duty to ensure the saving of the republic.” Jan. 6 rioters thought they were patriots, he wrote.

Now, Gardner says, he realizes “the nature of his crimes against the United States despite having been mislead [sic] to believe that they were acts of patriotism at the time.” Gardner wrote that he will live forever with “a cloud of shame over” his head.

Referring to himself in the third person, as is common in court filings, Gardner said his mind was “skewed by misinformation” and that he went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 “with the mind set of saving the republic from what he considered was some imaginary force that was set to destroy it.”

Gardner said it was “easy for many” to ask how he could have “listened to one man and been so naive,” but said there “was a collective of individuals that were highly prominent that promoted this idea that the government was under attack.” Gardner said he saw those people as “patriotic,” and that he “trusted the information that they were giving was solid.” He said he’s since learned better.