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KASH & KARL UNFILTERED: J6 Defendants Offer Retrospectives on January 6, the Gulag and American Freedom

January 29, 2025

January 6 defendants Kash Kelly and Karl Dresch

There are many stories about January 6 that fall by the wayside. Some January 6 defendants got extensive media coverage, especially in the immediate aftermath of January 6, but this is not representative of the overall body. Most defendants have remained nameless, faceless hostages. Real Americans have been rendered as caricatures as a way of pigeonholing them and glossing over the real experiences of that complicated day. Here are more of their stories.

Kash Kelly

January 6, defendant Kash Kelly was well-known as a conservative activist, streamer, and influencer before January 6. In fact, outside of notoriety from January 6 coverage, Kash was the most well-known defendant to be held with us inside the DC jail or “DC Gulag.” The Indiana native is the founder of the Streetlights Unity Movement, and has dedicated his life to turning urban youth away from lives of crime, himself being a former Latin King having turned away from gang life.

Kash Kelly went to the Capitol on January 6 intending to lead a sit-in protest only to bear witness to police brutality against protestors. Kash ended up walking through the Capitol, taking photos with statues, and leaving the building. For this, he was arrested after January 6.

Despite having only been charged with misdemeanors after January 6, Kash Kelly wound up inside the DC Gulag. Inside the jail, Kash eventually joined the custodian team inside of C2B (the “Patriot Pod” wing of the jail), and he worked to improve racial relations between the largely black jail staff and the largely non-black January 6 inmates.


Kash also helped his fellow defendants in an even more important way by releasing his own personal cell phone video from January 6. According to the feds in early 2021, and contradicting the claims of most defendants in the aftermath of January 6, police never launched flashbang grenades into the crowds on January 6.

On May 27, 2021 Julie Kelly published video from Kash proving the government had lied about its usage of ordnance on the crowds on the West Terrace. This was highly important to those of us accused of planning to storm the Capitol but who actually reacted to excessive force from police.

Upon finishing his sentence last year, Kash resumed his activism and returned to livestreaming. Recently, Kash Kelly, myself, Kenneth Harrelson, and Robert Gieswein – all January 6 defendants and original 2021 inmates from the DC Gulag – reunited to discuss our memories of life inside the jail:

After my initial interview with defendant Michael Curzio, I next had the benefit of interviewing Kash Kelly. Kash recounted his background, his experience on January 6, life leading up to his arrest, his time inside the DC Gulag, and life after prison. This is January 6 Unfiltered with Kash Kelly:

Kash has also recently gotten married and had a child. You can support Kash and his work HERE.

Karl Dresch

Defendant Karl Dresch is another OG member of the DC Gulag crew. A Michigan local, and the son of a respected state legislator, Karl wasn’t shy about politics and was actively involved in the local Republican scene. Karl came to Washington, DC, on January 6 to listen to President Trump’s speech with friends. He later peacefully walked throughout the Capitol building and exited the building. Karl would then spend half a year in solitary confinement, in various jails after his arrest, and most prominently in the DC jail – the DC Gulag.

Karl was a staple of life in the Gulag, known for his jolly disposition, friendliness, and absurd humor. After Michael Curzio got time served on his misdemeanor plea deal, Karl Dresch was able to get a similar deal. While Curzio’s judge forced him to serve the maximum sentence of 6 months for his misdemeanor to make a point, in Dresch’s case he ended up serving more than his maximum sentence because of when the plea deal was accepted, meaning Karl served over 6 months on a misdemeanor charge that carries 6 months maximum.

Upon exiting the DC jail to freedom, Karl Dresch would give one of the first interviews a January 6 inmate would ever give on the conditions inside the Gulag. Washington congressional candidate Jerrod Sessler was conveniently outside of the DC jail with a film team. Sessler was stunned to learn that Dresch was not only a January 6 defendant but had also been inside the jail for months. Karl would recount the conditions inside the jail and the treatment of his fellow defendants.

Sessler uploaded the interview, which caught significant attention, and Dresch and Sessler have stayed friends since. Karl wouldn’t forget those of us left in DC and remained an advocate for us. Much like with Michael Curzio and Kash Kelly, I reconnected with Karl after I finished prison, and similarly had a long-form interview with him. This is January 6 Unfiltered with Karl Dresch:

Now that January 6 defendants are no longer subject to probation or supervised release, I and others can speak freely with each other. The patriots I languished with behind bars in the DC Gulag have been hastily reconnecting. With each day, more and more sign on to tell their story. What really happened on January 6, how they were smeared by the feds and media, and what they suffered through while locked up, and much more.

These interviews, along with hundreds of pages of primary documents, will form the basis for a multi-volume history series, Artifice and Betrayal: The History of the DC Gulag. Now that their voices have been restored, the defendants will be the ones to write the authoritative history of January 6 and the lawfare that followed, not the prosecutors and media.

You can follow Kash Kelly HERE and Karl Dresch HERE.

The post KASH & KARL UNFILTERED: J6 Defendants Offer Retrospectives on January 6, the Gulag and American Freedom appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.