Federal judge orders release of John Strand from Jan. 6 prison term

John Strand, a former model and actor who went to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to protect Dr. Simone Gold of America’s Frontline Doctors, was ordered released from prison July 15 in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision stymieing use of a 20-year felony obstruction charge.

United States District Judge Christopher Cooper granted Strand’s second motion for release since February — just weeks after a Supreme Court ruling strictly limited the obstruction of an official proceeding charge leveled against Strand and 354 other Jan. 6 defendants.

Gold, Strand’s friend who served a 60-day prison sentence on a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, praised Strand’s integrity after learning of the release order.

'Who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?'

“He was offered a single misdemeanor plea,” Gold said in an interview with Blaze News. “He said, ‘I'm going to walk into the fire.’ He walked into the fire. He never regretted it. I mean, he’s a full-on hero in an age when we need heroes.”

Strand, 41, of Naples, Fla., will have to finish his 12-month sentence on four Jan. 6 misdemeanor charges, which puts his release date on July 24. Strand was originally sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Strand might come to see his release in the light of the miracle of three Old Testament figures who inspired him during his long Jan. 6 ordeal, Gold said.

Strand loves the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as told in chapter 3 of the prophecy of Daniel, she said.

The book of Daniel recounts how the three men were bound tightly and thrown into a roaring furnace after they refused to worship a giant golden idol commissioned by Babylonian King Nabuchodonosor (often spelled Nebuchadnezzar).

“Who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?” the king asked.

The flames, however, did not consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. An angel drove the fire out “and made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew, and the fire touched them not,” Daniel wrote.

John Strand records a speech by Dr. Simone Gold in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. Strand worked as Gold's bodyguard on Jan. 6, 2021.(CCTV/U.S. Capitol Police)

“And they walked in the midst of the flame, praising God and blessing the Lord.”

After a year in federal prison, Strand will walk out of the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, La. — one of three lockups that have been his personal crucible since July 25, 2023.

During his year in custody, Strand spent some four months in solitary confinement, according to Gold. He never wavered in his belief that going to trial was the right decision.

Strand has said he resisted the pressure to take a plea deal rather than capitulate to what he considered unjust charges.

A federal District of Columbia jury found Strand guilty of all five charges against him on Sept. 27, 2022 — including the 20-year felony obstruction count.

Gold had been scheduled to speak about medical freedom and COVID-19 at a permitted event on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. The massive crowds that swarmed the Capitol after then-President Donald J. Trump’s speech at the Ellipse canceled the event.

After entering the Capitol, Gold and Strand made their way to Statuary Hall, where Gold attempted to give her medical-freedom speech. After police pushed the crowd out just before 3 p.m., Gold and Strand moved to the Great Rotunda. She stood on the platform of a statue of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and gave her speech through a bullhorn.

'I think the world needs heroes. We've got one.'

Left-wing publications including Rolling Stone and others mocked Strand’s decision to go to trial and celebrated his conviction, calling him a “model-turned-Covid-19 conspiracy theorist" and an "underwear model turned insurrectionist."

“If there is anything that this case can teach us, it’s that a male model’s life is a precious, precious commodity,” Rolling Stone wrote in September 2022. “Just because they have chiseled abs and stunning features, it doesn’t mean that they, too, can’t go to jail."

On June 1, 2023, Cooper sentenced Strand to 32 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release and ordered him to pay $12,170 in restitution and fines.

Gold said she hopes Strand will go into public life after his release.

"I'm going to encourage John to run for office,” she said. “I think the world needs heroes. We've got one. The world needs men who stand up. Men who walk into the fight.”

Editor's note: This article has been update to remove Strand's middle name.

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