How One January 6th Felon's Trial Became a Family Affair

     Joseph Lino "Jose" Padilla is a bad guy and was a key instigator of aggressive violence on the Lower West Terrace on January 6th. A user of the "thedonald" forum who repeatedly pressed up against police barricades, he shouted insults, calling one officer a "moral coward," before helping to breach a police line with a massive Trump sign. After making his way to the tunnel, he threw a flagpole that struck an officer in the head. For his spree of violence, one that included claiming that he had a right to try to overthrow the government and saying he was prepared to return with guns, Padilla was convicted of eight felonies and two misdemeanors carrying a maximum of roughly 90 years in prison. In reality, he'll probably wind up with a sentence of somewhere between five and 10 years. Seems like a fair verdict and a fair case overall, right? 

     Well, Mr. Padilla and his wife seem to disagree with most rational people on that. On "Christian" fundraising website GiveSendGo, a cloak for the far-right that has helped insurrectionists raise millions, Mrs. Rebekah Padilla described her husband's arrest on February 23rd, 2021, as "a nightmare." Three days later, she said, her landlord evicted her. She and her three sons went to live with Rebekah's brother, who offered her two rooms for $800 a month plus half of electric and utilities. She claims she moved out after he demanded she buy him a new rug, but I believe that there's more to that story. $800 a month plus half of a number of the bills actually seems pretty fair for a family of four moving into someone's house. Two weeks into that arrangement, Rebekah went back to live with her mommy. She never mentioned anything about paying any rent.

     She's not who you're probably envisioning, she insists. She works three part time jobs: not one, not two, not four, but three. She also claims that when searching for her own home it is her husband's criminal case that is holding her back. "As soon as I say my last name many will tell me there is no availability," she starts in a hellishly-long, grammatically-nauseating sentence. I hate to break it to Rebekah, but "Padilla" is a very common last name. "Others say they don't allow felons." Not an unreasonable policy, but is could just be racist considering she's from Tennessee. I also doubt the people there would rush to make life difficult for a far-right insurrectionist. 

     Seems like she's been put through hell, but it's not her husband's fault for putting an effort to overthrow the government over his family, Rebekah explains: "This political prisoner nonsense is really frustrating." I'm sorry you've been so inconvenienced, ma'am. Valentine's Day without him was hard for Rebekah, but I imagine it's a lot harder for the families of the five officers who died. She has tried to comfort him by sending him rhino-related items related to a long-running joke, and she plans to get him a stuffed rhinoceros when he gets out. She lost one of her three jobs, and sent her boys on a church camping trip, which tells me all I need to know about her as a parent. So, Valentine's Day and summer went pretty well, but Halloween had a hiccup. When they went trick-or-treating, her youngest son saw a kid dressed in an orange jumpsuit and started crying.

     Her son became a volunteer firefighter in the Volunteer State, which she's rightfully very proud of. Then came more bad news: her car broke down, her credit card information was allegedly stolen, and she and her kids all got sick over the span of a few weeks. Still, she and her children continued to grow older while she continued to stand by her husband, who continued to rot in jail for trying to deprive the American people of their constitutional right to vote. As her husband's trial approached, a bad situation got worse, with her car breaking down again; the repairs put her two months behind on her payments; the AC went out; and on and on. 

     Her next wound was self-inflicted. She went to Washington, D.C., to watch her husband's trial. For the first time in nearly two years, they saw Joseph in person. She's had problems, though. She and all three of her children weren't allowed to visit him all at once in the D.C. jail. Even though it's not uncommon for a jail not to allow FOUR people to visit an inmate, she decided to chalk this up to "targeting" of January 6th defendants and doxed the warden. The visit I understand, but I can't imagine taking your kids to witness their father's trial. That is horrible parenting, and yet she acted surprised when the prosecution "bashed" her husband as a "vile brute" and seemed confused that he was convicted on 10 out of 11 charges he faced, including eight felonies. 

     Padilla is set to be sentenced later this month; whatever time he winds up receiving, I'm sure Rebekah Padilla will use it to raise money.