A then-Sandpoint man and his brother were charged following the capitol riot. Then Trump began his second term

Two days before Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election over Donald Trump, a Sandpoint resident named Michael A. Pope messaged his brother in Topeka, Kansas.

“Trump needs to pick up a pistol and finish this,” Pope wrote his brother, William A. Pope, on Nov. 5, 2020.

After refusing to concede, Trump summoned his followers to a Stop the Steal rally with a social media post on Dec. 19, 2020.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump wrote. That day, Congress was scheduled to certify Biden’s victory in the electoral college.

“Be there, will be wild!”

Using Messenger, the Pope brothers started planning to answer Trump’s call.

According to court records from the FBI investigation, the brothers began discussing what weapons and protective vests they should take to Washington, D.C.

“This whole thing is the perfect target for bad actors,” William Pope messaged his brother.

Michael Pope responded: “Part of me want to bring a checked bag with more gear, but I really don’t want to answer questions about why I’m flying with body armor ect,” in a message that included misspellings.

Michael Pope boarded a flight out of Spokane International Airport on Jan. 5, 2021, and the brothers didn’t just participate in the attack on the Capitol – they helped lead portions of the assault, according to court records.

Michael Pope kicked over a barricade near an officer, the brothers struggled with Capitol Police officers trying to barricade a door and had a confrontation with other officers inside the building as Congressional leaders huddled in fear from the worst assault of the complex since British forces burned it in 1814.

Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted.

Later charged as part of what has been described as the largest single investigation in U.S. Department of Justice history, Michael Anthony Pope, 36, eventually was found guilty on Oct. 24, 2024, of four counts related to the insurrection. William Alexander Pope, 39, had yet to go to trial, where he intended to represent himself without a lawyer.

Michael Pope was one of seven people from Idaho charged in the attack. Another 26 were charged from Washington state, but he appears to be the only one with ties to Spokane, through his wife’s business.

Despite their talk of weapons, neither of the Pope brothers were charged with committing violent acts against the U.S. Capitol police officers who scrambled to stop them.

However, thousands of hours of investigation, prosecution and defense work were negated last month when Trump – as one of his first acts of his second term as president – either commuted sentences or gave full pardons to all of about 1,600 suspects charged or convicted of storming of the Capitol.

Records indicate that Michael Pope and his wife Rachel sold their home, located northeast of Sandpoint, in November 2021, some nine months after he was initially charged with Jan. 6 offenses.

One day apart in December 2023, the couple purchased a 166-acre ranch several miles outside of Wheatland, Wyoming, and a $525,000 home in Laramie.

Court records don’t appear to indicate what Michael Pope does for a living, but a recent online post suggests he’s the “organizer” for Shiloh Ridge Ranch and Church of Christ Camp, which lists the same address for the Popes’ ranch outside of Wheatland.

Rachel Pope, 33, is a certified clinical behavior analyst. She owns Focused Behavior Solutions, which offers “clinic-based” assessments and treatment plans for children with behavioral issues.

Focused Behavior Solutions has offices in Walla Walla; Montesano, Washington; and at 1719 N. Atlantic St. in Spokane. Rachel Pope obtained her first business license in Spokane in July 2017, according to state records.

Neither she nor Michael Pope responded last week to multiple calls seeking interviews.

Attempts to reach Rachel Pope’s parents in Gering, Nebraska, and William Pope, of Topeka, Kansas, likewise were unsuccessful.

But William Pope voiced his displeasure of the situation to U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras as the Kansan sought to get access to the full investigative file following his pardon. He wrote that he intends to challenge the nature of the investigation for which he never stood trial.

“This was a wrongful prosecution and last week, the government finally moved to dismiss all of the false allegations against me,” he wrote in court records filed on Jan. 28. “I was never convicted of any offense, and I maintain my innocence and good looks.

“However, even though I have won my case, the government did attempt to make my life hell for the last four years through a malicious prosecution. I want answers as to why the government’s pursuit of me was so unprecedented and vindictive, and why certain files were destroyed or withheld from me.”

Jan. 6 pushback

Newly appointed officials in the second Trump administration apparently agree with William Pope.

In his pardon proclamation for nearly all of the defendants, including those convicted of assaulting police, Trump called the investigation “a grave national injustice against the American people.”

That language was cited by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last month when he ordered subordinates to fire recently hired Jan. 6 prosecutors still in their probationary periods. Bove directed the firing of eight FBI executives and requested a list of the FBI agents who were involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.

“There is no honor in the ongoing efforts to distort that simple truth or protect culpable actors from scrutiny on these issues, which have politicized the Bureau, harmed its credibility, and distracted the public from the excellent work being done every day,” Bove’s memo said.

Justice Department officials have told the FBI that bureau employees on the list of Jan. 6 investigators could also be subject to personnel actions, although Bove appeared to temper that possibility in a memo last week.

“No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,” Bove wrote to acting FBI director Brian Driscoll. “The only individuals who should be concerned about the process … are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from Department leadership, or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the FBI.”

Two groups of anonymous FBI agents sued the department last week while raising concerns that the review of Jan. 6 cases was a precursor to retaliation and possible unlawful firings.

The prosecutor who led the investigations into Matthew and William Pope was Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He resigned from his post on Jan. 17, just days before Trump took office.

As he resigned, Graves said he could see no basis for any pardon based on the denial of due process.

“There are nearly 1,600 people who are charged, who have a great incentive to point out flaws in what the government did if we did not abide by our constitutional requirements to grant them due process,” he told the Washington Post. “Do you know how many people have prevailed on those kinds of claims? Zero. These are things that are vetted in courts of law where people have to prove their allegations with facts and at every turn.”

Jeffry Finer, an attorney from Spokane, has defended clients for 40 years and worked 30 years as an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University School of Law. Finer said he’s appalled at the purges that Trump has thrust upon the federal ranks.

“This was the kind of conduct that was threatened before the election and following the election,” Finer said. “First, no one should be surprised. Second, it’s an egregious misuse of the executive function to turn the Department of Justice into a payback system.”

Finer did not represent either of the Pope brothers, but he spent much of his career arguing against government lawyers and worked to ensure that they followed the law.

Finer said the recent FBI personnel reviews and purges of attorneys are targeting “civil servants who were doing what they were instructed to do and, by all appearances, were fulfilling the oaths of their jobs.”

He compared the ongoing purges to exploits of the late Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin who in 1950 became a household name when he alleged that hundreds of communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies.

McCarthy took advice from attorney Roy Cohn, who later worked for a young Trump.

“It’s bizarre to see the architect of Joe McCarthy’s tactics inspiring the current president to repeat those fatal mistakes,” Finer said.

Finer said the atmosphere created by Trump could hurt even local federal courts, like in Spokane.

“I fear we are going to lose the skilled and ethical attorneys that we have downtown,” he said. “I can’t imagine the skilled and ethical ones will want to continue working under this regime.”

‘Set up a cache’

Michael and William Pope, like most Jan. 6 defendants, attended federal court hearings that were held in Washington, D.C.

Much of the evidence against them came from their own communications.

After Trump sent out the invite, the brothers began talking about weapons and even the types of bullets that William Pope’s new Kevlar vest could stop.

“I wonder if we should set up a cache in a locker just in case,” Michael Pope wrote his brother on Dec. 28, 2020, according to court files.

The brothers both traveled to Washington, D.C., and arrived at the Mall at about 7 a.m. on Jan. 6. Each wore a backpack and carried a flagpole with an American flag.

“The Popes decided not to go into President’s Park, where law enforcement officers were conducting security screening, because the flagpoles they were carrying would not be allowed,” federal prosecutors wrote.

Instead, they listened to Trump’s speech from near the Washington Monument where he told the crowd, among a series of remarks that: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Later in his speech, in which Trump made urgings to “fight” several times, he also said: ”I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

The Pope brothers then walked more than a mile from where they listened to Trump to the U.S. Capitol. During the walk, William Pope streamed a Facebook Live video.

“Mike Pence, I guess he is down there right now, deciding whether they are certifying the election or not,” William Pope said on the video. We “got a lot of people who are not happy that the election is potentially being stolen.”

At 1:53 p.m., a video camera captured Michael Pope at the front of a crowd near the Capitol.

Capitol Police Officer Pernell Clark later testified that he was posted at that location and was trying to keep rioters from entering the restricted perimeter.

The video shows Michael Pope and others dragging bike racks that had been used as barricades to keep people away.

When Pernell “came over and brandished his baton to stop the crowd and keep the bike racks in place, Michael Pope kicked at the bike rack, before eventually grabbing the bike rack and pulling it down,” and moving past the police line, court records state.

“As he surged forward at the front of the crowd walking towards the Capitol building, Michael Pope waved his arm to beckon the crowd to follow him as he marched towards the Capitol building,” prosecutors wrote.

The Popes then approached the Senate Carriage Doors at 2:18 p.m., based on surveillance video that recorded their actions.

Capitol Police officers had the entrance partially open and were ejecting those “rioters” who earlier had entered the building.

The Pope brothers jostled with police as they pushed to enter, documents say.

“A scuffle broke out between police and rioters, just as William repositioned himself in the doorway. An officer reached past William to deploy pepper spray at the crowd,” records state. “Instead of moving, William Pope wedged the flagpole he was carrying into the door jamb to prevent officers from being able to close.”

With the door wedged open, Michael Pope slipped inside the Capitol, according to court documents. He walked forward and entered a Senate elevator.

“Officers directed Michael Pope to leave the elevator, but he refused,” prosecutors wrote. “Three officers were forced to enter the elevator and pull Michael Pope from the elevator, leading to a brief grappling incident between Michael Pope and the Capitol Police officers.”

A few minutes later, Michael Pope tried to enter a hallway and was stopped by Officer Tucker Kleitsch, according to court records.

“Michael stayed in the officer’s personal space and made a second attempt to get past the officer, again forcing the officer to block Michael from entering the hallway,” the files state.

Not long after that interaction, the police line blocking a nearby hallway broke, and the Pope brothers joined other rioters as they proceeded further into the building, according to prosecutors.

Over the next 19 minutes, video cameras captured the brothers walking “through a suite of offices belonging to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the Crypt, and Sanctuary Hall,” prosecutors wrote. “Eventually, at about 2:37 p.m., Michael and William Pope exited the Capitol Building.”

After they left, Michael Pope sent his mother a message on Facebook: “It was more peaceful than what the news is making it out to be. I saw a few people hurt including PD, and offered to help. Wasn’t anywhere near the shooting, and probably found out after you did.”

His mother suggested that it was “antifa who breached the capitol,” according to court records.

Michael Pope replied: “I’m sure antifa was there among the crowd, but it felt more like the people decided that fraudulent elections equated to a lack of representation and took back their capital in the 21st centuries equivalent to the boston tea party.”

The brothers left the chaos and returned to their homes.

Charges coming

As the fallout from the attack on the Capitol became clear, William Pope reached out to voluntarily speak with FBI agents after he returned to Kansas on Jan. 9, 2021.

“As I noted when I self-reported, I was at the Capitol to exercise my First Amendment rights,” he wrote in a court filing last month.

He said he complied with a request by federal officials to report themselves “and said that those who did would be treated well,” William Pope wrote. “I wish I wouldn’t have believed them, because that was a complete lie by the government, and they instead indicted me on 30 years worth of federal charges for being entirely peaceful.”

After speaking with William Pope, federal prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Michael Pope on Feb. 10, 2021, and a Coeur d’Alene-based FBI agent arrested the Idaho resident two days later in Sandpoint.

The case proceeded for three years before U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras held a bench trial, the type of trial that does not use a jury, in Jan. 2024. But the judge delayed issuing a verdict.

Before Contreras issued his decision, Michael Pope’s attorney, Bruce Searby, acknowledged in a court filing that his client was someplace he should not have been. Efforts to reach Searby last week were not successful.

“As he frequently admitted: Michael Pope committed crimes on Jan. 6th, but they were lesser crimes of non-compliance with lawful authority,” Searby wrote on Sept. 4. “He breached a bike rack that authorities intended him to remain behind; he did not fight a police officer who tried to maintain that bike rack.

“Michael Pope illegally demonstrated. He trespassed and entered the Capitol building despite signs he should (not) be there.”

Searby, however, argued that Michael Pope’s “wanderings” and touch of a police officer’s leg “do not elevate his misdemeanor conduct into a felony.”

Judge Contreras did not agree.

On Oct. 24, Contreras found Michael Pope guilty of attempting to obstruct law enforcement, knowingly entering a restricted building, knowingly disrupting or impeding government business and willfully engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct within the U.S. Capitol grounds.

He scheduled Michael Pope’s sentencing for April 23 and allowed him to remain out of jail with certain conditions.

As Michael Pope awaited sentencing and William Pope awaited trial, both brothers asked Contreras to lift the release condition that prohibited them from traveling to Washington, D.C.

They wanted to be there when Trump took office the second time.

“Initially, I had declined an invitation to attend the inauguration (since I don’t enjoy being in Washington),” William Pope wrote in December. “However, I have now been asked a second time, and I believe it would be inappropriate for me to turn down this request.”

During that trip, Trump pardoned them both, along with all others charged or convicted stemming from the assault on the Capitol.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.