Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Sparks Chaos at Minneapolis Rally

Jake Lang, born Edward Jacob Lang in 1995 in New York's Hudson Valley region, is a far-right activist and former entrepreneur who participated in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.[1][2][3] Prior to the event, he ran ventures like a vaporizer business, custom baseball hats, and Social Model Management, which aimed to boost Instagram followers for models; he later shared posts about sobriety struggles and religious interests, including "ChristEnergy" and kosher practices.[2] Lang faced 11 federal charges, including assaulting officers with a baseball bat, and spent four years detained awaiting trial before receiving a pardon from President Trump among about 1,500 January 6 participants.[1][2] Post-riot, he created a Telegram group to recruit for a militia—initially the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, later renamed America First Constitutional Militia—growing it to nearly 200 members in a week to oppose the incoming Biden administration.[1][2] He raised nearly $600,000 via GiveSendGo for legal costs and founded the J6 Pardon Coalition.[1] A New York native now in West Palm Beach, Florida, Lang announced his Republican candidacy for Florida Senate in March 2025, challenging incumbent Ashley Moody in the 2026 primary; he frames it as electing a "January Sixer" and "1776 patriot."[1][4] FEC records show his campaign raised $28,767 by late 2025, mostly via candidate loans, with $1,829 in contributions and $1,828 cash on hand.[4] Lang remains active in protests, leading an anti-Islam demonstration in Dearborn, Michigan, where he carried crosses, threatened to burn a Quran, taunted with bacon, and stormed a city council meeting demanding ICE action.[1] In January 2026, he organized a permitted "March Against Minnesota Fraud" rally in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside, drawing concerns from local leaders over potential anti-Muslim agitation.[5]

Donald John Trump, born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, is an American businessman, media personality, and politician. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1968 with a degree in economics. In 1971, he took over his family’s real estate business, renaming it the Trump Organization, through which he expanded into building and managing skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump gained widespread fame as the host of the reality TV show *The Apprentice* from 2004 to 2015, which helped establish his public persona as a successful entrepreneur. Trump entered politics as a Republican and was elected the 45th president of the United States, serving from 2017 to 2021. His presidency was marked by significant policy actions including tax cuts, deregulation, the appointment of three Supreme Court justices, renegotiation of trade agreements (notably replacing NAFTA with the USMCA), and a focus on immigration control including border wall expansion. He withdrew the U.S. from international agreements such as the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal, and engaged in a trade war with China. His administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was criticized for downplaying the virus’s severity. Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives—first in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction, and again in 2021 for incitement of insurrection—but was acquitted by the Senate both times. After losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump challenged the results, culminating in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He remains a central figure in American politics, having won the 2024 presidential election and returned as the 47th president in 2025, continuing to promote policies aimed at economic growth, border security, and military strength[1][2][3][4].

Renee Nicole Good was a 37-year-old American poet, writer, singer, and mother of three from Colorado Springs, Colorado, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026, during a Department of Homeland Security operation targeting alleged fraud.[1][2][3] Born in Colorado, Good—previously known as Renee Macklin—earned a degree in English from Old Dominion University's College of Arts and Letters in December 2020. That year, she won the university's undergraduate poetry prize from the Academy of American Poets for her poem "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs," and her bio highlighted her passions for writing, reading, movie marathons, and creating "messy art" with her children.[1][2] She hosted a podcast with her second husband, Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023 at age 36, and described herself on Instagram as a "poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer," featuring an LGBTQ+ Pride flag.[2] Good had worked as a dental assistant and at a credit union but had primarily been a stay-at-home mother in recent years. A devoted Christian, she participated in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland and sang in a high school choir, later studying vocal performance before focusing on creative writing.[1][2] She had two children (ages 15 and 12) from her first marriage and a 6-year-old from her second; her first ex-husband described her as compassionate but not an activist.[1][2] At the time of her death, she lived in Minneapolis with her wife, having moved there the previous year after living in Kansas City, Missouri.[2] The shooting, near the site of George Floyd's 2020 murder, drew widespread attention, with Old Dominion University President Brian Hemphill calling it a tragic example of violence in the nation and honoring her life as a reminder of "freedom, love, and peace."[1] Good was a U.S. citizen returning from dropping her youngest child at school when the incident occurred.[2]