From her home office in Dupont Circle, defense lawyer Heather Shaner has represented hundreds of defendants in D.C.’s federal courts over the past few decades. She was working on a case on Jan. 6, 2021, when a neighbor called her and told her to turn on the TV.
“I was horrified. I mean, how could you not be horrified?” she recalled.
Less than two months later, Shaner found herself representing a woman who was at the Capitol that day. Her client pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of parading, demonstrating or picketing at the Capitol.
Since then, Shaner has represented 42 other J6 defendants, she said. They all pleaded guilty.
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“I've said no to cases where people injured the police. I've said no to cases where people desecrated the Capitol. Other than that, everybody deserves a lawyer,” she said.
“Do they deserve you?” the News4 I-Team asked.
“They’re damn lucky if they get me,” she replied with a laugh.
Investigations
Investigations by the News4 I-Team
Nearly 1,600 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and more than 1,000 have been sentenced. As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, discussions are underway about whether Trump will soon pardon many of those who have come to be known as J6ers.
Shaner said she hasn’t taken on J6 cases because she believes the presidential election was stolen; there’s no evidence of that. She doesn’t believe due process was denied and isn’t a MAGA supporter. In fact, she’s far from it.
“My function as an attorney was not to convert them politically. My function was to make them understand what our foundation documents are, what our constitutional rights are, what our civic responsibilities are,” she said.
Shaner said she sent each of her clients at the D.C. jail copies of the Constitution, “The Federalist Papers,” Thomas Paine's writings and videos of their own actions on Jan. 6.
“I mean, if you start out with a whole bunch of baloney and you don't know it's baloney, you're going to keep exercising your choices based on incorrect information,” she said.
Shaner’s experience with J6 cases is now the centerpiece of a documentary called “Public Defender.” It chronicles her work with some clients and their journey to take and sometimes wrestle with their own culpability.
“I wanted the world to know that we can reach out to each other and we can love each other and we can educate each other,” she said.
Why Ashli Babbitt’s mother says she doesn’t think Trump will ‘leave these men behind’
That hasn’t been the path for many of the J6 defendants not represented by Shaner, who cling to their innocence even after jury verdicts to the contrary.
Outside the D.C. jail, supporters have held a nightly vigil for more than two years for J6 inmates, who Trump has referred to as “hostages.”
Micki Witthoeft’s daughter, Ashli Babbitt, died on Jan. 6 after she was shot by U.S. Capitol Police as she tried to climb through a window onto the House floor. Witthoeft is a near-constant presence at the rallies, where protesters think Trump will soon pardon each of the people charged.
“Any time I've ever spoken with him and he said he's going to do something, he does it,” Witthoeft told the I-Team. “I don't think he's going to leave these men behind.”
Shaner doesn’t see the events of Jan. 6 the same way or believe every case should be treated the same.
“I think a pardon is a wonderful idea. Not for people who knowingly and intentionally tried to destroy our democracy, because I think the standard for a pardon there should be a little higher,” she said. “But for schmucks who walked in and took pictures next to photographs of presidents and the statues in Statuary Hall and then walked out, I think it's fine if they get a pardon.”
“Public Defender,” the award-winning documentary featuring Shaner, is currently streaming and the filmmakers will host a screening at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown D.C. the night of Jan. 9. Go here for info.
Reported by Ted Oberg; produced by Rick Yarborough; shot by Jerry Lawlor and Jeff Piper; and edited by Jeff Piper
