Court exhibits from U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors allegedly depict Jan. 6 defendant James Rahm III outside of the Capitol (inset) and then among those at the front of a crowd pushing through doors at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“We broke the door down. We’re going in. My eyes hurt like s— from the pepper spray but we’re going in,” James Rahm III bragged in a text message on Jan. 6, 2021. But three years later, as he awaits his sentencing for breaching the U.S. Capitol, he has asked a judge for leniency because, among other gripes, he thinks he is on a “terrorist watchlist because flying has become a huge problem,” he wrote in court records obtained Tuesday by Law&Crime.
Rahm III aka JD Rahm, came to Washington, D.C., from Pennsylvania with his father on Jan. 6 and pleaded guilty in October to disorderly and disruptive conduct during the riot at the Capitol.
Rahm’s father, James Rahm Jr., was charged separately. James Rahm also goes by the name “Doug” Rahm. Prosecutors say text messages showed him boasting of urinating in then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office. He pleaded not guilty to five counts but was found guilty at a bench trial in October 2022, Law&Crime previously reported.
Prosecutors accused his son, Rahm III, of barging into the Capitol and forcing his way past police in a larger group, allowing other rioters to stream inside the building and overwhelm police.
But now it seems large crowds are more of an issue for Rahm III personally.
“Airlines refuse to allow me to check in or board. After waiting about 1-2 hours standing at a desk, I am finally issued a boarding pass. Then [the Transportation Security Administration] takes me for a personal screening which is intense, uncomfortable, intrusive and lengthy,” a statement from Rahm underlying a sentencing memorandum filed this week notes.
Rahm III claims his bags are searched multiple times, forcing other passengers to wait and that this treatment has occurred “the last 4 times I have flown.”
“This treatment is extremely inconvenient and embarrassing for me and for my girlfriend who suffers the same treatment, just for flying with me,” he claims.
He also claims he is a regular recipient of hate mail and death threats.
The grievance was first pointed out by CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane on the social media site X.
