The wife of a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who was convicted on charges related to January 6 told The Tennessee Star that families and friends of those defendants often experience survivor’s guilt, especially as many of those accused of crimes spend their third Christmas in jails or prisons.
Sarah McAbee, the executive director of Stand in the Gap and wife of January 6 prisoner Ronald McAbee, explained, “Wives are waking up without their husbands, children are waking up without their fathers. Even in the federal prison system, they only get a 15 minute phone call per day.”
She told The Star that on January 6, she “have to decide, am I going to call my spouse? Am I going to call my parents? Am I going to call my child?”
A Washington, D.C. jury convicted Ronald McAbee in October after federal prosecutors claimed he engaged in a fight with a member of law enforcement on January 6, and his sentencing is currently scheduled for February 29, 2024. Video showed Ronald McAbee, a former Williamson County Sheriff’s deputy, struggling to assist fallen protester Rosanne Boyland, who died of the injuries she sustained at the Capitol. It also shows him struggle alongside a member of law enforcement, whom the family maintains Ronald McAbee attempted to assist.
She told The Star, “Truly, the process is the punishment for everybody involved,” noting periods when jail and prison staff “cut off communications,” leaving family without contact “for days on end.” She added, “You don’t know if they’re okay, or if they’re even alive.”
Her organization, Stand in the Gap, assists with visitation for January 6 prisoners. Sarah McAbee told The Star the work is vital for the January 6 defendants “because the government is trying to break these people whichever way they can.”
“We weren’t able to see our loved ones for two years, even via video visits. My husband’s been incarcerated for 29 months now, I’ve seen him six times,” she revealed. “The first time, I saw him behind glass for 30 minutes, and that was a year and a half into [his incarceration].”
Sarah McAbee explained, “Even the littlest things help, because their families are still trying to live on the outside, especially at Christmas time. This is going to be their third Christmas away.”
While families suffer financially and emotionally without their loved ones, she added that “survivor’s guilt is a very real thing” too.
“You feel guilty about being able to sleep with a pillow because they have no pillows. You feel guilty for being able to go to dinner, because they get fed rice and beans every night for dinner and a baloney sandwich every day for lunch,” she said. “When they say that we’re doing time out here, we absolutely are.”
Despite the hotly contested video that seems to show her husband was actively attempting to render aid on January 6, Sarah McAbee told The Star her husband was disowned by family and abandoned by friends. She added that many January 6 defendants have similar experiences, with all but immediate family members cutting ties.
Still, she told The Star, there is “a really beautiful side” to the otherwise traumatic experience. She said, “We’ve had people come into our lives that we never would have met if not for this.”
Sarah McAbee added that she gains strength from her Christian faith.
She said, “The Lord has a much bigger plan, I’ve said this from the very beginning. This is much bigger than we could even fathom, the Lord has a much bigger plan for all of this.”
She added, “He sends storms in our life to clear the branches, to clear the things that are in our lives that shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s people.”
Despite her husband’s conviction, Sarah McAbee told The Star she remains generally optimistic about the future. Citing promises from presidential candidates to pardon January 6 defendants, she expressed hope that a future Republican Congress would go further, with investigations about how the day transpired, the subsequent Department of Justice prosecutions were made possible, and defendants were left unable to contact family and lawyers.
[rumble]https://rumble.com/embed/v266rt4/?pub=4[/rumble]
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ronald McAbee” by Sarah McAbee.Â
The media celebrates Alex Navalny in Russia and cheers jailing their opposition here.
White shoe law firms rounded the block to represent Gitmo terrorists and can’t be found to help free political dissidents from the gulag they support.
Does the National Lawyers Guild force members to take a Hypocrite Oath?
I cannot add anything to what has already been written. Except that Trump 47, when he is elected, should pardon all of the Jan 6th participants and stop any remaining trials. The SWAMP surely does stink!
JANUARY 6 2021. will forever represent how closely this country came to being destroyed forever. Thank God for all the Patriots who showed up at the Stop the Steal Protest. A legal approved Protest. Those Protestors recognized the Evil that had taken place during the 2020 Presidential Election. The only persons armed that day were the Cops & Feds & their paid Confidential Human Sources. Paid by you the taxpayer to infiltrate patriot organizations like the Oathkeepers & the Proud Boys & dress in Trump gear pretending to support the Protest but encouraging violence. These Phonies were setting up the Protesters to look like they were there to overturn the government. They were present at the Capitol long before the Protestors were to march to the Capitol to Protest “Peacefully & Patriotically” as President Trump asked them to do. PSYOP is what the FBI & CIA are experts at. ITS SO EVIL. The phonies dressed in Trump gear & mived barriers & busted out windows. They even erected a gallow on the grounds to represent the hanging of someone.
Who knows who those evil people are? There are some who know their identities. There will be Whistle Blowers when we get a real President in 2024, & JUSTICE WILL BE OURS.
We have all watched the rapid destruction of America under two illegitimate Presidents. Yes Barrack Hussein Obama was as illegitimate as Biden. BHO was not a Legitimate Candidate for President, which was pointed out by none other than Hillary Roddam Clinton, in the 2008 Primary, when she was opposing BHO.
The CORRUPTED MARXIST MEDIA covered for BHO. They trashed HRC for her revelation, causing her to lose the Primary. The Marxist Cabdidate won the Primary. The Corrupt Media convinced the people that it was OK for BHO & “Wife” to legally seal their past ( there are a lot of ugly secrets in that past). What Public Official can Seal Their Past & get elected as POTUS?
Free People submitted their Common Sense in order to elect a First ” Black” President. Even Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton didn’t think BHO was ” black enough ” to represent blacks. The real reason BHO was not a legitimate candidate is because our US Constitution defines the requirements. Both parents must be naturalized citizens, when qualified. BHO did not meet those requirements. I don’t believe Nikki Hailey meets those requirements either, but the Media doesn’t do the job they were designed to do by the First Amendment to our U S Constitution. Their job was to question everything in government & report to the voters. But instead they are now a Wing of the government. The Fifth Branch if you will. The Fourth being the Administrative Branch.
This is why it’s so important for our young citizens to learn the history of the Founding of this great nation & to know the intricate details of the origins Our Declaration of Independence, Our U S Constitution, & the Bill if Rights. That History is the basis of American Excellence & Pride in Country & Why America has been so revered around the world.
But isn’t it amazing its not a Primary prerequisite for K-12 & College Education? That’s not an accident. It’s Marxism. Karl Marx ( Marxism ) knew History, virtues & Traditions must be destroyed & eliminated before Socialism could take over, leading eventually to Communism.
Our young people are not taught to be aware of the dangers of creeping Marxism & to stomp it out before the promise of a Utopian Society of Socialism can flourish in their young minds. Marxism starts its mad path of destruction with the family. They use our own Bill of Rights to convince young people they ” have a right” to kill the unborn. They encourage Women to be like Men & Vice Versa. They convince women they don’t need men in their life. They demonize men for being masculine. They sterile minors by lying to vulnerable parents who have already been contaminated by their vile & destructive lies. They tell parents that Drag Queens & Porn are an inspiration for our kids, grooming them to be victims of pedophilia & screwing up their minds & breaking down their will.
When a country abandons God as King & replaced Government as King, the Country will fail. A Country must have Virtuous Principles, Traditions & Morals to survive. Our rights come from God, not Government. We must never let government become God.