Every night since August 2022, a small crowd has gathered outside the Washington DC Central Jail, through frigid winter nights and under spring rain, to protest against the US justice system.

The protesters outside the red-brick buildings of the facility pray, discuss the news, and broadcast telephone calls with prisoners inside the jail, where hundreds of accused or convicted rioters have been held in the three years since the 6 January 2021 storming of the Capitol.

In recent months, as Donald Trump has gripped the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, the protesters have taken heart from the ex-president’s vocal public support for those who attacked Congress.

At rallies, Mr Trump plays a version of the national anthem recorded by the J6 Prison Choir – an anonymous group of prisoners thought to include several violent offenders.

On Wednesday, he posted a video of the song on his Truth Social account, describing them as “January 6th hostages” – a term he has increasingly used in reference to the rioters.

On a recent chilly evening, Micki Witthoeft was one of a handful of protesters and live-streamers outside the jail. The mother of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old military veteran who was shot and killed by law enforcement after breaching the Capitol building, Ms Witthoeft said she had received a call from Mr Trump just that day in which he promised to “do his best” for the prisoners should he return to office.

“President Trump is a man of his word,” she said. “We don’t really think everybody on January 6 was innocent of all things, but we just want them to be adequately and accurately charged and sentenced.”

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