Pamela Hemphill

Pamela Hemphill (born 1953) is an American former Trump supporter who took part in the United States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.

Hemphill was born in California, her mother a waitress and addict and her father an absent alcoholic. After retiring from a 27-year substance abuse counselling career in 2011 and moving to Boise, Idaho, she became politicised during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016, initially attending the protests to oppose the project but later becoming pro-pipeline. She attended anti-mask mandate meetings and protests organised by Ammon Bundy in 2020, and voted for Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections.

Hemphill livestreamed the 2021 Capitol attack on Facebook, spending about 20 minutes inside the Capitol building. She was convicted and sentenced in 2022 to 60 days in prison with 36 months of probation and $500 restitution for one count of demonstrating, picketing or parading in a Capitol building, to which she had pleaded guilty. Hemphill is noted for changing her mind on Donald Trump during her time in prison and afterward, supporting Joe Biden and voting for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, as well as for her refusal of Trump's presidential pardon in 2025.

Early life and career Hemphill was born in California in 1953. Her mother was a waitress, and was mentally ill and addicted to prescription drugs. Her father was a railroad worker who was an alcoholic, though Hemphill was told that he had died when she was young, and only remembers meeting him once, at five years old. Hemphill has said she was in and out of care homes as a teenager, and was sexually abused at this time. Hemphill has made some unverifiable claims about her childhood, including that her mother was a "psychopath" and a possible murderer, and that she remembers her mother performing what she describes as satanic rituals. As a young adult, Hemphill herself became an alcoholic but became sober in 1979. She voted in the 2008 election for Barack Obama, the only time she had voted for a Democrat before the attack; she has stated that she usually voted for whoever her mostly Republican-supporting family recommended. as well as Bundy's arrest. Later that month, she attended another protest by Bundy's followers at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center, where a man was undergoing medical treatment after he was injured trying to stop Bundy's arrest. There, she told her fellow protesters to "get outside" when the protesters entered the building, stating that, "We don’t harm people. This is a hospital, there are sick people in here." She livestreamed this protest to Facebook, where she had by this point gained thousands of followers.

January 6 United States Capitol attack

Preparations Hemphill was being treated for breast cancer at the time of the riot, The evening before the attack, Hemphill attended an event hosted by far-right radio host Alex Jones, posting a video of herself there on her YouTube channel, saying "let's go to the Capitol," and "Don't worry, Trump's coming in office."

Arrest and trial Eight months after the attack, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived at her front door in Boise, Idaho,

At her trial in federal court in 2022, prosecutors argued that she had exaggerated an injury to "distract" officers from dealing with more violent protesters. She described herself as an "ex-MAGA Granny" on social media. She argued that accepting the pardon would be "an insult to the Capitol Police". Under the precedent set by United States v. Wilson (1833), an individual has the right to refuse a pardon. In June 2025, former vice president Mike Pence wrote a letter to Hemphill expressing admiration for her decision to reject the clemency. She has since attended local Democratic Party meetings in Boise.