Cale Douglas Clayton

Cale was stunned when the FBI returned almost a year later with a warrant for his arrest.

Living a productive life as a carpenter in quiet Drexel, Missouri, Cale was an enthusiastic Kansas City Chiefs fan, like many of his neighbors. Like many of them, he was also an enthusiastic supporter of then-President Trump.

Along with millions of other Americans, Cale was deeply disturbed by the developments and irregularities of the election of November 2020. His passion to defend his country’s election integrity moved him to fly across the country to Washington, D.C. to join the President’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol Mall.

Then aged 40, Cale was among the estimated two hundred thousand-plus Americans who listened to the President’s speech at the Mall as he proclaimed, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Cale marched proudly with his fellow protestors down Pennsylvania Avenue, wearing his favorite Chiefs sweatshirt, spirits high. By the time he arrived at Capitol Hill, earlier crowds of hundreds of protestors had already removed several lines of barriers and were gathered before a police line of barricades surrounding the Capitol building itself. Cale was shocked to witness police throwing tear gas and other “less-lethal” grenades into the crowd, beating them back with batons, and dangerously firing rubber bullets at citizens from a high vantage point – tactics that violated the police forces’ own protocols.

Climbing up to the Upper West Terrace, Cale voiced his outrage at the police from beneath risers set up for the inauguration Joe Biden. He had travelled all the way from Missouri to his country’s Capitol to declare that Donald Trump was the rightful man to take the oath for a second term as President. He pointed his finger at officers for a few minutes, letting his voice be heard forcefully as the police fired irritant spray into the crowd:

“We are going to win! You don’t have enough for all of us! You might hit me once or twice! You might spray me with pepper spray! I don’t give a [expletive]! There ain’t enough for millions of people here and you know it!”

As the police continued to incite the crowd with their unlawful tactics, Cale could stand back no longer, and stepped up to the front lines as the crowd of protestors pressed up against a line of police shields.

As the police shoved the crowd back, an officer in front of Cale dropped his baton. While attempting to return it to the officer, Cale clutched onto a police shield amidst the chaos. At one point, an Arlington County PD officer struck Cale’s hand with a baton to free his shield. As other officers took Cale into custody, amidst the melee and surging mobs of protestors and police, Cale grabbed the face shield of an officer’s helmet and apparently pushed the officer backward. These two moments of physical contact with the police would trigger his arrest, and come back to bite Cale years later.

According to official documents, “[Cale] Clayton had the police baton in his possession at [the time of arrest], and it was recovered by law enforcement officers. Law enforcement moved Clayton inside the building, where he was seated on a bench in the Rotunda. Later on January 6, 2021, Clayton was transported to an [Metropolitan Police Department] station and released without charges.”

After being freed, Cale traveled back to his home in Missouri, exhausted. As he moved on with his normal life of carpentry in Drexel, Cale had no idea that the FBI received an anonymous, online tip saying that he was involved in the January 6th riots.

After the surprise interview by the FBI agents in March of 2021, almost a year passed with no other contact from law enforcement. Cale felt confident that he was in the clear.

Then, on March 31, 2022, he was arrested on federal felony charges.

The government charged him with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers and civil disorder, among a stack of other felonies. The FBI’s affidavit stated that Cale had interfered with official congressional business on January 6^th — even though he had never stepped foot inside the Capitol building until police brought him into the Rotunda in handcuffs. He was accused of “stealing government property” – for picking up a dropped polcie baton and trying to return it.

Cale was relieved to be released on bail, but it would take a year of waiting in suspense before his case could be resolved.  

On March 10, 2023, a plea hearing for Cale was held before Judge Royce C. Lamberth in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In order to lower the amount of counts piled up against him, Cale was forced to plead guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.

Three months later, on June 15, 2023, Cale Douglas Clayton, now 42, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol.

Cale is living in Missouri again – this time inside the walls of a federal prison facility. His release date is August 13, 2025.

You can contribute financially to Cale’s legal, medical and meal expenses via this link:

https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp#money

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