Former President Donald Trump posed for a photo with Jan. 6 defendant Rebecca Lavrenz of Colorado Springs, according to an Aug. 24 Facebook post.
“I was arrested, charged, and am awaiting trial on March 25th, 2024 for praying and taking God’s presence into our U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021,” wrote Lavrenz. “Just last week I had the honor of being introduced to the President by my daughter, Laura, who works for his campaign. I was able to have a brief conversation with him and let him know I am in this fight with him to save our country.”
Lavrenz was arrested in December on charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. Lavrenz’s daughter, Laura, who facilitated her meeting with Trump, also served as a special assistant to the Republican National Chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel.
Following Lavrenz’s arrest, she received widespread support from the El Paso County Republican party and members of activist group FEC United.
“This is a person I’ve known for a little while,” said El Paso County GOP Chair Vickie Tonkins during a Dec. 14, 2022 appearance on the Conservative Daily podcast. “She would give you the shirt off her back. She is just a giving, praying grandmother who went to the capital and her only reason for going in that building — after being let in — was to pray. She wanted to pray for the elected officials. She wanted to pray for our country. That’s what she did. If that’s a crime then they need to come lock me up.”
Todd Watkins, the El Paso County GOP vice chair, recently wrote an email to the Colorado Republican Party describing the Justice Department’s treatment of those arrested for participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection as “our government committing atrocities on its own citizens for what are obviously political reasons,” and identifying the plight of Jan. 6 prisoners as a “top priority” for the party.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) responded to Watkins’ claims in a letter dated Sept. 1. “The letter makes a number of factually incorrect claims, and then proceeds to overstate the threat to our Republic based on these false claims,” wrote Buck. “There has been significant misinformation proliferated on the Internet about the status of the January 6th defendants, and I assume these Internet rumors are the source for much of the incorrect information contained in the letter. I hope this response will help clarify the situation and that you will cease disseminating false information.”
In addition to charges against those who took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, like Lavrenz, Trump is also facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights over allegations that he and six unindicted co-conspirators — including former visiting scholar at the University of Colorado’s Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, John Eastman — orchestrated a plot to overturn the results on and leading up to January 6, 2021.
Trump is also facing charges from three other indictments, one relating to a hush-money payment to an adult-film star in 2016, one for allegedly taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials, and one for alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in Georgia.
