J6 prisoner Ryan Samsel sounds ‘election fraud’ alarm in ‘D.C. gulag’
WASHINGTON – January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel has sounded an alarm via text message from his jail tablet to WorldNetDaily while detained in general population of the Washington, D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility.
The J6 defendant, who like other “J6ers” has been held in pretrial detention for an extraordinarily long period of time – almost four years – said in a text sent Wednesday that a jail guard took away his mattress while spewing racial epithets. Immediately after this, he asked his family and this reporter to call the jail’s command center to investigate the situation.
“Hey can you call LT brown at command center and ask why he took the mattress away and called me a cracker and is mad BC I had ppl call up there for my legal mail they wont give me,” Samsel wrote. “He said ant no cracker getting a mattress and took my mattress.”
Samsel is also blowing the whistle on what, ironically, could be called an election-fraud scandal of sorts inside the jail.
The law in Washington, D.C. – specifically D.C. Law 23-277, the Restore the Vote Amendment Act of 2020 – “allows District residents to vote while incarcerated.”
“I have everyone writing grievance on the jail for not giving us [our] ballots and now [they’re] holding my mail,” Samsel wrote.
The notorious “D.C. Gulag,” in which approximately 300 January 6 defendants have been held pretrial for nearly four years, is the same correctional facility in which Samsel was assaulted by jail guards weeks after his Jan. 30, 2021 arrest, after protesting in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Samsel’s 2021 beatdown by jail guards resulted in the fracturing of his “orbital floor and potentially untreated brain damage,” according to his medical records.
The first assault he sustained while incarcerated for J6 was directed by agents with the FBI following his refusal to take a plea agreement that entailed casting “blame” on former president Donald Trump for his “role” in the Capitol riot.
During another assault at another prison, Samsel explained that he was tied to a 4-point restraint chair and held backwards for approximately 12 hours while being brutally assaulted by jail guards who spat on his face and berated him with profane racial epithets.
Photographs of Samsel locked in a broom closet in a Philadelphia jail went viral across the internet, garnering attention from Gen. Mike Flynn and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who called the torture of this defendant a “national disgrace.”
As Samsel has stated, he was locked in the broom closet for five months with the light left on, after guards discovered he was being smuggled food and coffee through the toilet.
Fellow J6 prisoner, Marine Corps veteran and Proud Boys leader Zachary Rehl has confirmed that he provided Samsel food, potentially saving his life when Samsel was being starved for nearly two weeks.
Rehl would save some of his meals and then “fish” Samsel food via a rope through the toilet from a cell below. Samsel contends guards found crumbs of the coffee and dragged Samsel to a “hard cell” with no toilet.
Support for Ryan Samsel’s legal and medical battle is urgently needed. Please make a donation here.
In February, U.S Marshals abruptly transferred Samsel from the D.C. gulag to Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, located in the same district where pedophile-human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein allegedly killed himself.
Moments before he was transferred, in a 4:27 am text message from his jail tablet to this reporter, Samsel warned: “They’re trying to kill me,” adding that his lawyer Stanley Woodward didn’t block the transfer to the notoriously dangerous MDC Brooklyn, hundreds of miles away from the jurisdiction in which he is being criminally tried.
To date, Samsel has been transferred 29 times among 19 different correctional facilities around the country. Such transfers are cynically referred to within the penal system as “diesel therapy.”
At MDC Brooklyn, an investigator who inspected the pretrial federal prison, where rap mogul Diddy is currently detained on suicide watch, revealed that maggots were found in the food served to inmates.
Samsel, a 41-year-old mixed martial arts fighter and Pennsylvania barber, is insisting his defense counsel be removed from his criminal case and replaced by a public defender who will provide the court with records documenting his chronic health problems and critical need for surgery.
Samsel’s private sector doctor had prescribed immediate surgery as needed to remedy Samsel’s blood-clotting condition before his Jan. 30, 2021 arrest, yet he has been repeatedly denied authorization for surgery by Judge Jia Cobb.
As WND has reported, Samsel filed pro se action in the Eastern District of New York asking a judge to grant him immediate medical treatment and examination, allowing doctors to re-diagnose his condition and finally allow him long-needed surgery. Samsel attached his medical records to the pro se filing, citing numerous doctors who prescribed the required surgery.
The lawsuit pending on New York Judge Rachel Kovner’s desk was a point of contention at Samsel’s Sept. 19 status hearing.
Samsel’s longtime attorney, Stanley Woodward, was ordered by Judge Cobb to turn over all records pertaining to the status of his client’s health, to be presented at a Nov. 19 status hearing.
Samsel told WND he called the public defender’s office and asked to have Woodward removed from his case.
A family member of Samsel’s, who asked that their name be withheld from publication, described the daunting tribulation of not knowing whether their loved one is conscious day to day, as the FBI, in tandem with U.S. Marshals and government prosecutors, play political football with his life.
“For the past few years he has represented Ryan, Stanley Woodward and has done jack crap for him. Then he just robbed us of all this money to sit around to do absolutely nothing while Ryan has all these medical issues that he needed to be handled a very long time ago,” the family member told WND during an exclusive interview.
“His lawyer was supposed to present a lot of things in the courtroom, including Ryan’s medical record, stating that Ryan needed medical treatment and must get this surgery. He was prescribed surgery before he was incarcerated almost four years ago, and we’re here now, close to 2025, still fighting for his medical treatment, still waiting for the judge to approve this procedure.”
The quarrel with the jail guard that led to Samsel’s mattress being confiscated came after the family member mailed Samsel his medical records to present in court.
Subsequently, Samsel was penalized over the package.
“About two weeks ago, I sent him a package containing all of his medical records and he’s never received it. So, I called the captain of the D.C. prison to find out where this package is at, because Ryan hadn’t received it.
“The captain said, ‘We’ll call the mail room and track down the package.’ He needs these medical documents to prepare him, and to present this in court to show the judge that he needs this treatment.
“For asking about the package, he is being retaliated against. He sent me a message saying they took his mattress away. Obviously, they don’t want him to get this mail.
“It is very stressful every day. You know, I try to keep strong for him, and it’s just a daily struggle every day.”
With at least 17 blood clots and the condition that causes the clotting to continue, his family fears stirring the pot will only result in more brutal retaliation.
For weeks at a time, they may not hear from him, not know “if he is dead or alive,” explained the family member, who assists Samsel from the outside: “This is why I was nervous and hesitant to call over to the D.C. prison – I was in fear of retaliation and what they could do to him, only to find out they already started pulling their moves once again. These guards can be at command at any time to want to assault Ryan again, and God forbid if he asked for a mail package.”
At the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Samsel was the first to approach police as the massive crowd of demonstrators amassed in the cul-de-sac, the flimsy border between millions of angry protesters and the Capitol building, fortified by just five police officers and a few bike racks.
Samsel contends he approached a police officer to ask whether protesters would be allowed to demonstrate at the inauguration stage where he thought Trump was slated to speak.
The cop, Samsel says, lashed out at him, prompting him to take his jacket off and turn his MAGA cap backwards. Ray Epps, whom many believe was a government plant, simultaneously approached Samsel and put his arm around him. Epps then controversially whispered in Samsel’s ear. Samsel contends Epps said to him, “Don’t push, pull – we got people.”
Although Samsel fights for his freedom and practically begs for medical treatment while being detained mostly in solitary confinement during his three-plus-year pretrial imprisonment, Epps was charged with a simple misdemeanor and has yet to be incarcerated.
In fact, Epps is heard providing materially false statements to the FBI in his interviews with the Bureau published by this reporter in April. Epps is also heard in the audio asking an FBI agent to remove his picture from its Most Wanted List. His picture was subsequently removed.
UPDATE: As of 2 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, Oct. 17, the court, during a status hearing, agreed to allow Ryan Samsel’s legal counsel to be replaced by a public defender. At the same time, he must now foot the bill for an additional private attorney he has finally recruited to fight his medical battle in the Eastern District of New York.
Support for Ryan Samsel’s legal and medical battles is urgently needed. Please make a donation here.