WASHINGTON — They came before dawn.

Not with facts. Not with a warrant for justice. But with battering rams, AR-15s, flash grenades and the chilling certainty of a government gone rogue.

Zachary Rehl, a Marine Corps veteran and former leader of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter, was yanked from his home at gunpoint by an army of FBI agents as if he were a terrorist.

His wife, six months pregnant, watched helplessly as federal agents dragged away the man she loved.

His crime? Supporting President Donald Trump and walking peacefully through the U.S. Capitol building for 20 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021, a misdemeanor by every legal standard, but under a weaponized, Biden-era DOJ, that stroll became a “seditious conspiracy.”

Rehl carried no weapon. He committed no violence. Yet, he was branded an enemy of the state, stripped of his honor, his military benefits were revoked and he practically starved to death while locked in solitary confinement for nearly three years and denied bail.

His daughter was born while he rotted in a concrete box.

And now, finally free, thanks to a commutation from President Donald Trump, Rehl is exposing the truth in a battle to clear his name that could span years: The FBI didn’t just bend the law, he says. They broke it, over and over again.

And laughed while doing it.

The evidence suggests it wasn’t Rehl plotting a conspiracy – it was the FBI.

Explosive court filings containing internal FBI communications expose what appears to be a calculated, malicious campaign by activist agents within the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center to destroy Zach Rehl’s life, secure convictions at any cost and shatter his family in the process.

The documents comprise text messages between FBI agents that were accidentally disclosed to defense attorneys by federal prosecutors during the discovery phase of the 2023 seditious conspiracy trial of Rehl and co-defendants Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola, Joe Biggs and Enrique Tarrio.

According to logs among the agents exhibited in two publicly accessible motions filed by the defense on behalf of Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean – HERE and HERE – FBI agents are seen discussing spying on Rehl’s attorney-client meetings and crafting strategies to secure his conviction.

And bragging about it.

During the 2023 trial, journalist Julie Kelly reported on the accidental “‘spill’ of FBI secrets” as well as how Judge Timothy Kelly sided with the prosecution in whitewashing the incriminating text messages.

Indeed, she reported, “[Judge] Kelly, outside the eyes and ears of the jury, held a hearing with both sides on March 9 to determine how to proceed after the defense team uncovered messages indicating FBI agents doctored internal reports, destroyed evidence and tipped off prosecutors about defense strategy on the government’s highest-profile January 6 case.”

Today, in his efforts to obtain full justice and hopefully convince President Trump to turn his presidential commutation into a full pardon as so many other Jan. 6 prisoners received, Rehl is intent on publicizing how unfairly and outrageously he was treated by the Biden-era federal prosecutors and judges.

Some of the text messages exchanged between FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller and twang2@fbi.sgov.gov show they were fearful Rehl would take his case to trial and expose the government misconduct:

MILLER: Found an email thread with REHL and his attorney MOSELEY. The attorney raised some interesting points.

WANG: Hopefully all related to him pleaing out.

MILLER: Nope. He mentioned how we (GOV) did things improperly.

WANG: Oy.

MILLER: I need to find other emails, but his one email def indicates that they want to go to trial. But don’t freak out Jason and Luke yet or [yourself].

WANG: I’m not freaked out.

Worse, while Rehl was incarcerated, the agents targeted Rehl’s pregnant wife, Amanda, with what appeared to be a malicious scheme to break the family.

Exhibits of their logs in the publicly available court filings show many messages exchanged between agents displaying clear animosity toward the Proud Boy defendant and glee at his misfortune, including advancing a false narrative of infidelity on the part of Rehl’s wife with her husband’s friend “Aaron.”

“They better give you those calls! I want the ones from after the 8th, when we hit Aaron’s house! They are going to be SOOOOO good!” Miller wrote to Wang, giddy over the prospects of Rehl’s marriage falling apart.

“I know!” Wang replied. “I don’t see any emails from Aaron past the 6th, even though there are email as late as yesterday.

“Maybe [Aaron] sent them from Amanda’s account. She sleeps over a lot,” Miller quipped.

“Bahaha,” Wang replied.

The ploy failed – Aaron’s girlfriend was the driver – but the agents’ glee persisted:

MILLER: Just listened to about 7 min of yelling … Zach to Amanda lol.

WANG: Bahah. Did he find out she’s hooking with Aaron?! I’m waiting for this to be a legit thing. And when it is … popcorn!

MILLER: Not yet. Haven’t come across that one.”

WANG: Dang it

MILLER: Hahaha [I’ll] bring beer.

WANG: Yes.

The FBI’s vendetta didn’t stop at humiliation. Rehl’s service to his nation – years in the Marines – meant nothing. The moment “seditious conspiracy” stained his record, the government revoked his benefits and the U.S. Treasury Department demanded $100,000 in repayment, leaving Amanda, a housewife, to fend for herself.

Legal fees bled them dry, thousands a month, while the Treasury Department loomed like a vulture.

The FBI sought to bankrupt the Rehls, a violation of due process, cheering as military benefits were revoked and Amanda faced foreclosure.

“I also want to know if his house got foreclosed,” Miller said after laughing at the prospects of Amanda abandoning her marriage.

“Oooh. I wonder,” Wang replied. “I hope so.”

“I mean, if we really want to work all the PB [Proud Boy] members, he’s the one to go after especially his wife’s PayPal and her Venmo acct,” Miller continued, pushing to choke off any lifeline from supporters.

“I agree with you!!!” Wang replied.

Prosecutors, too, pounced – court records show they attempted to fine over 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants with restitution amounting to the total they would garner in donations to their legal funds, as if asking for help were a crime. In many instances, federal judges ordered defendants to pay the government money they raised for their legal defense.

This wasn’t law enforcement, but rather, a crusade to punish dissent, executed with taxpayer dollars.

The logs also hint at evidence tampering, a federal crime.

In a text message to dgsilk@fbi.sgov.gov, Miller instructed the other agent to remove evidence that would show she was working undercover as a confidential human source, or CHS.

“You need to go into that CHS report you just put and edit out that I was present,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has offered no public proof of the Proud Boys organization’s alleged plot, yet denies Rehl’s motion to dismiss, alongside co-defendants Biggs and Pezzola.

Some legal experts call the presidential commutations – leaving felony convictions intact – baffling, but the FBI’s actions are outright lawless.

Their laughter over Amanda “probably leaving” Rehl – “I’ll bring beer,” Miller quipped – exposes a culture of cruelty that demands accountability. Congress must investigate. Were these rogue actors or does this reflect systemic rot? How many others faced similar treatment?

The FBI’s internal messages came to light during the trial when defense attorney Nicholas Smith, representing Proud Boy co-defendant Ethan Nordean, cross-examined Agent Miller.

Miller testified that she filtered a large Excel spreadsheet of FBI messages, submitting only those she deemed relevant to prosecutors, who then shared them with defense teams as part of routine evidence disclosure during the trial’s discovery phase.

However, a “hidden” cell in the spreadsheet contained over 1,000 unfiltered messages from other agents, exposing misconduct.

Defense attorneys included a few pages of the unfiltered messages in motions to dismiss, until Judge Timothy Kelly intervened, ordering defense counsel to destroy them, shrouding the scandal that has left the Rehl family fighting to reclaim their lives after a harrowing four-year nightmare.

As WND reported, prosecutors denied Rehl and his co-defendants Joe Biggs and Dominic Pezzola’s recent motion to dismiss the Jan. 6 charges against them. Yet, not a shred of public proof shows Rehl plotting violence or orchestrating a “coup,” while mounting evidence suggests the FBI orchestrated his downfall, violating his Fourth Amendment rights and federal law in the process.

Nearly three years in solitary pretrial detention broke Rehl’s body, but not his spirit. He told the media the judicial overreach felt like “communist China” – words that earned him terror enhancements from Judge Timothy Kelly, despite his having committed no violent acts.

He and his co-defendants fight on, their motions to dismiss denied, while the FBI’s own chats expose the real conspiracy: a calculated plot to destroy lives for “wrongthink.”

Rehl’s former attorney, Carmen Hernandez, who defended him at trial, calls the FBI’s conduct unprecedented and like nothing she has seen throughout her 40 years of practicing law.

“These messages were personal, nasty – hidden glee at someone’s misfortune,” she told WorldNetDaily. “I’ve never seen such unprofessional animus from law enforcement, even against mafia or murderers. The judge blocked me from cross-examining Miller – said we were ‘showing bias.’ It was distasteful, unconstitutional.”

Hernandez slams the charges as baseless:

“Rehl, Biggs, Pezzola – veterans who own guns – could’ve brought firearms to D.C. if they’d planned a coup. They didn’t. The evidence was ridiculous.”

Was this a rogue cell or FBI policy? How many others suffered?

Hernandez argues the lack of Trump pardons for these prisoners shows “whoever reviewed J6 cases [or the president] didn’t grasp the evidence – or didn’t want to. Seditious conspiracy sounds serious, but dig in, and it’s nonsense.”

Still branded a terrorist, convicted of multiple felonies despite President Trump’s commutation, Rehl is unable to secure employment as he fights to clear his name and support his family.

*** PLEASE SUPPORT ZACHARY REHL’S LEGAL DEFENSE HERE ***