The father of two January 6, 2021, defendants who went on the run from the FBI before being pardoned by President Donald Trump recounted what his family went through in an exclusive interview on Breitbart News Saturday.
A newly released documentary about siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock and their dad, Ben Pollock, tells the story of how the Polk County, Florida, clan was the subject of an intense raid by law enforcement during the Biden administration.
God Bless America, Baby, produced by independent journalist Tracey Eaton, details how Jonathan eluded arrest and remained a fugitive for over two years, while Olivia and a third defendant disabled their GPS monitors and fled while they were out on bond.
“When he came into my life, I did not trust him,” Ben said of Eaton, who is a former journalism professor of Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle. “I did not trust him. And all through the thing, I did not trust him … Because, you know, they were planting so many CIA agents or FBI agents in on us and everything.”
Eaton also spoke with Boyle on Saturday, recalling how he worked to “accurately portray” the Pollock family’s perspective on how their Christianity got them through being “wanted” by the FBI.
Recounting a pre-dawn raid on his family’s home, Ben said he felt like it was “the most violent” compared to other January 6 defendants he spoke with. “It was just so overkill,” he continued, before sharing his fear that “they were trying to get Americans into a firefight with them because they wanted to spin that narrative and blame the stolen election on us like we were just nut cases.”
“When I opened the door on the day of the raid — if it wasn’t for my faith, I would have been a nervous wreck,” Ben said. “And, I mean, it was horrifying.”
When he cautiously opened the door to see what he described as “at least three SWAT teams,” Ben said he realized, “Oh my goodness, we are the red flag. [We’re] the family they’re trying to have a firefight with.”
“I had an AR-10 right there by the door, and God said, ‘If you pick that up, you’re a dead man.’ And so I left it right where I was at,” he recalled.
Jonathan, Olivia, and Joseph Daniel Hutchison, the other fugitive defendant who worked at the Pollock family’s gun shop, were arrested and taken into custody on the third anniversary of the January 6 protest in 2024.
It would be over a year before Trump was back in the Oval Office and able to pardon January 6 defendants, and what kept the Pollocks going was their faith.
The mainstream media did not want to hear their story of how Christianity kept them afloat, Ben said.
“They don’t want religion. They don’t want to know about the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world … That’s what drives me because I was set free from my guilty conscience and my sin,” Ben said.
Eaton said he titled the documentary God Bless America, Baby after Ben exclaimed it as they arrived at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
“[Trump’s] not my king, but I have the King Jesus, and one day I’m going to sit at his throne because he’s the King of kings and Lord of lords,” Ben said. “But yet, here on Earth, I got to sit and have dinner with the president of the free world.”
“That man rolled out the red carpet,” the elder Pollock added.
Now streaming on Relay, God Bless America, Baby has won Best Feature Documentary at the Roma Short Film Festival in Italy; received awards at the Clout International Film Fest in California and the Southeast Asia International Film Festival in Thailand; was nominated at the Director’s Cut Film Festival in Budapest, Hungary; and earned honorable mentions at the Folkestone Film Festival in Connecticut, the Awareness Festival in Los Angeles, and the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival in Greece.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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