He was branded a home terrorist after January 6 and left to rot in a cell.  As he tries to rebuild his life on a farm, he tells the story nobody listened to… and the way he survived

Tom Caldwell is a changed man.

Five years ago, he talked about ‘executing traitors,’ starting a civil war against ‘f***ing libtards,’ and ‘burning down Congress.’

He was one of some 2,000 supporters of Donald Trump who descended on Washington DC on January 6, 2021 — the day that changed America.

The retired Navy intelligence officer was soon branded a ringleader in the Oath Keepers conspiracy. Prosecutors called him a domestic terrorist.

He spent 53 days behind bars — humiliated, abused, and, he says, left to rot in solitary confinement.

Now 71, Caldwell was acquitted of the most serious charges in 2022. A judge later sentenced him to time served for a minor obstruction count — and President Trump wiped that clean with a full pardon this spring.

Today, he’s back on his family farm in Berryville, Virginia, trying to rebuild what’s left of his life.

He and his wife, Sharon, 65, are starting again — planting crops, mending fences, and paying off the debts from their long legal fight.

‘We’ve been blessed,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘We’re getting our life back. We kept the farm, and the future looks bright. The last four years took a toll, but we survived with faith and the grace of God.’

Caldwell says the ordeal transformed him. The fury that once poured out in late-night messages has been replaced by calm — and faith.

‘My faith has been tested and strengthened. I’m calmer now,’ he said.

‘I don’t want revenge — vengeance is the Lord’s.’

He no longer posts online.

‘I’m not on social media at all. I don’t think it’s very social,’ he said. ‘I hear angry talk all around me, but I don’t engage in it anymore.’

After years of rage and bitterness, Caldwell says he now wants to be a ‘calming influence.’

‘I’m hoping my story shows people you can go through rough times and still come out whole,’ he said.

That calm came at a price.

An FBI SWAT team stormed his Virginia farm before dawn on January 19, 2021. The disabled veteran was hauled out of bed at gunpoint, handcuffed, and taken away.

He says guards stripped him, mocked him, and left him shivering in a freezing cell.

‘Flashing lights, freezing cold — things you’d expect in an old James Bond movie,’ Caldwell said.

‘They wanted to break me.’

He calls it torture — ‘cruel, humiliating, politically motivated punishment.’

He says his medication was confiscated. He slept on cold concrete. He prayed to stay alive.

Inspectors have not confirmed Caldwell’s specific allegations, though a 2021 US Marshals report did find unsanitary conditions, delayed medical care, and retaliation complaints at the jail housing several January 6 detainees.

Prosecutors at trial claimed Caldwell helped coordinate ‘quick reaction force’ teams to move weapons into the capital if the riot escalated.

They said he was a ‘commander’ in the Oath Keepers, a militant, anti-government group led by Stewart Rhodes.

Caldwell insists it was all false.

‘I was never a part of the Oath Keepers,’ he said. ‘Never asked to be one, and wasn’t with them that day. It was just me and my wife.’

He says they went to hear President Trump speak at the Ellipse, then walked to the Capitol.

‘It was a husband-and-wife outing,’ he said. ‘We were there to hear the President’s final address.’

He insists he never entered the building and saw no violence.

Caldwell’s biggest problem was his own words.

In one message before January 6, he wrote: ‘Trump will win on the 6th; if not, I’m personally gonna start the civil war myself. So f**ing tired of these libtards.’*

In another: ‘If we’d had guns, I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians.’

He told the jury those were jokes — private venting among friends.

‘Those were private texts with friends,’ he said. ‘The jury saw the truth when we showed them what came before and after.’

He says the FBI twisted casual chatter into evidence of conspiracy.

‘They built a case around exaggerations and context-stripped text messages,’ he said.

He calls the whole prosecution a political ‘witch hunt.’

After his acquittal on the main charges, a federal judge in January 2025 sentenced him to time served.

Weeks later, Trump returned to the White House — and issued a wave of pardons for what he called the ‘January 6 hostages.’

Caldwell was among them.

But freedom didn’t bring peace. His reputation was destroyed. His Social Security payments were frozen. His farm nearly went under.

He and Sharon sold everything they could to pay legal bills.

‘We had to liquidate everything to pay for my defense,’ he said. ‘But we kept the farm. That’s a miracle.’

He says cards and letters from strangers kept them going.

‘People we’d never met kept us from sinking into the depths of Dante’s Inferno,’ Caldwell said.

‘They became like family.’

His book, The Mouths of the Wicked, tells his side of the story — part courtroom drama, part faith testimony, part political warning.

Caldwell calls it a ‘cautionary tale.’

‘When people hear too much hateful talk, they can get propagandized,’ he said.

‘If someone is called Hitler enough times, people start believing it — and then they think whatever violence they do is justified. That’s absolutely not the case.’

He fears America is still on the brink — torn apart by social media fury and political hate.

‘I would hope the violence would die down,’ he said.

‘We can go back to the way it used to be, where people could have discourse instead of discord.’

Experts on political extremism say both sides of the political divide have been radicalized by misinformation and online echo chambers — and warn that the anger fueling events like January 6 has not gone away.

Caldwell says the justice system has been corrupted by politics.

‘I don’t ever want to see the justice system used as a weapon against anyone,’ he said. ‘Follow the evidence — don’t invent it. I just want to get our lives back.’

More than 2,000 rioters breached the Capitol that day, forcing lawmakers to flee and halting the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

More than 1,400 people were charged in what the Justice Department called the largest criminal investigation in US history.

The department denied any political bias, saying the prosecutions were based on clear evidence of planning and coordination among extremist groups.

Legal experts note that juries — not prosecutors — acquitted Caldwell on the most serious charges, showing the system did work as designed.

Still, Caldwell’s trial was among the highest-profile January 6 cases.

While he walked free, Stewart Rhodes and several Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden.

The far-right militia-style group was founded in 2009 and recruits current and former law enforcement and military members.

Prosecutors said the group were a dangerous paramilitary network that stockpiled arms and discussed using force to stop the transfer of power — claims its leaders denied.

More than 140 police officers were injured during the riot, and five died in the days afterward — one from natural causes after an assault. Protester Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.

The Capitol complex suffered millions of dollars in damage; lawmakers and staffers later described trauma and fear that day as rioters stormed the building.

Caldwell remains a divisive figure — hailed by supporters as a patriot persecuted for his politics, and viewed by critics as part of a movement that turned political rhetoric into violence.

Still, Caldwell says he no longer lives in anger.

‘People tell me it’s a wonder I’m not vengeful,’ he said. ‘But vengeance is the Lord’s. It’s not up to me.’

He spends his days working the land and writing. He still walks with a cane and wakes from nightmares, but says the rage is gone.

‘We’ve lost a lot,’ Caldwell said. ‘But the things that matter — love, faith, and family — are stronger than ever.’