The Patriot Post® · January 6 and the Death of Matt Perna

In the weeks and months and years ahead, whatever else we come to learn about January 6, 2021, this much we already know: What began as an overzealous political protest ended up as a racket — a racket through which the Democrat Party can, in perpetuity, smear, hassle, demonize, investigate, incarcerate, and otherwise destroy the lives of Trump supporters. That’s all it is.

One such life was destroyed just last month, when, on February 25, Matthew Perna hung himself in his garage. He was 37. His obituary is a three-minute read, and it will move you to wonder: Why?

It begins: “Matthew Lawrence Perna died on February 25, 2022, of a broken heart. His community (which he loved), his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life.” It goes on to say that he loved many things: people, dogs, books, music, running, adventure — even a sickly kitten that showed up on his porch one day. And more — much more:

He attended the rally on January 6, 2021, to peacefully stand up for his beliefs. After learning that the FBI was looking for him, he immediately turned himself in. He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door … where he was ushered in by police. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures. For this act he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives, and people who had never met him. … The constant delays in hearings, and postponements dragged out for over a year. Because of this, Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died. … Matt did not have a hateful bone in his body. He embraced people of all races, income brackets, and beliefs, never once berating anyone for having different views.“

As his story notes, Matt Perna attended Central Community Church in Transfer, Pennsylvania, and he read his Bible daily. A week after turning himself in, he was arrested at his home by six FBI agents and charged with a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and three trespassing misdemeanors. Your tax dollars at work.

We share Matt Perna’s story because we already hear about the law enforcement officers who suffered that day: cops such as Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, whose death by natural causes on January 7 has been well documented by our Mark Alexander and others, and Metro Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, whose death by suicide a few days after the riot was, remarkably, ruled a line-of-duty death.

In addition, we already hear about the relative handful of high-profile defendants: those like Guy Reffitt, whose behavior that day was markedly worse than that of his fellow protesters. (Reffitt didn’t enter the Capitol building, but he’s the only defendant we’re aware of who carried a sidearm on the Capitol grounds. He’s also the only defendant we’re aware of whose son testified against him.)

But what we rarely hear about are the hundreds of protesters whose transgressions were so minor, and yet whose lives are still tied up in legal limbo more than a year later. And we wonder: Is it really the best use of our federal government’s resources to prosecute the likes of Matt Perna? Especially when that same government went to such great lengths not to prosecute those who engaged in far, far more serious rioting during the George Floyd summer of 2020?

January 6 was grossly overblown by the mainstream media, and it was infected with FBI agents and informants. Don’t believe us? Just ask the New York Times’s Pulitzer Prize-winning national security correspondent, Matthew Rosenberg, who was there that day. Project Veritas asked him, and his answers hew closely to what we’ve believed all along.

Again: Matt Perna did nothing wrong that day. Nothing. As independent journalist Julie Kelly notes, he didn’t harm anyone, didn’t threaten anyone, didn’t storm past police, and didn’t so much as scratch a piece of government property. And yet he was hounded to his death by a vengeful Biden Justice Department — a Justice Department that increasingly seems to pursue two tiers of justice: one for the privileged Left, and one for the deplorable Right.

Something’s wrong here.