Two days after the Capitol rebellion on January 6, Jackson Reffitt’s father, Guy W. Reffitt, returned to the family’s Texas home. He told his son that he had invaded Capitol, according to an FBI statement.
Then his father made a threat: if Jackson, 18, reported to the police, he would have no choice but to do his “duty” to his country and “do what he had to do”.
In interviews with investigators, Jackson Reffitt said his father told him: “If you report me, you are a traitor. And you know what happens to traitors. Traitors are shot. “
But he had already reported his father to the FBI weeks before the riot.
“He always told me he would do something great,” said young Reffitt in a telephone interview on Saturday. “I thought he was going to do something big and I didn’t know what.”
Guy Reffitt’s wife told investigators after the rebellion that he was a member of the Three Percentages, a far-right militia group, according to the statement.
FBI agents found an AR-15 rifle and a pistol at his home. The older Mr Reffitt told investigators that he had brought the pistol with him to Washington.
Jackson Reffitt said he knew his father was going to Washington the day before the riot, but that he didn’t know what he was doing there. He found out what was going on when he saw images of protesters invading the Capitol on the news.
It was not clear what the Federal Bureau of Investigation did after Reffitt contacted the FBI about his father. Federal investigators contacted him during the riots to follow up on his complaint weeks earlier, at which point, he said, helped “prove what they were trying to investigate”.
Reffitt said he “just wanted someone to know” about his father’s threats to “do something big”.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do, so I did everything possible just to be safe,” he added.
Mr. Reffitt, who was arrested on January 16, faces charges of obstructing justice and intentionally entering a restricted building or land without legal authority. He was not found on Sunday and it was not clear whether he had a lawyer. The FBI was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.
Reffitt said he was not sure whether his father knew that he had reported him to federal authorities.
“I’m afraid he knows,” he said. “Not for my life or anything, but for what he can think.” But he said he was hopeful that his relationship with his father could be restored.
“We will improve over time,” he said. “I know we are.”
He said his mother and two sisters “had no idea what I had done” until they saw an interview on CNN that he gave Chris Cuomo.
After the interview gained momentum online, Mr. Reffitt said on Twitter, “Yes, I am the boy from CNN.”
The tweet attracted thousands of likes and retweets, and he said he was inundated with messages asking him to set up a GoFundMe, so he did.
“Every penny is another course in college or I will save for the next few years,” he wrote on the crowdfunding platform. “I can be kicked out of the house because of my involvement in my father’s case, so every penny can help me survive.”
Mr. Reffitt was not staying at his family’s home and refused to say where he was for fear of his safety. He was using his girlfriend’s phone because his family had disconnected his, he said.
He said he posted the GoFundMe page just before going to bed on Friday, hoping that a few thousand dollars would be raised. When he woke up on Saturday, the page raised more than $ 20,000.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 1,800 donations were pledged, totaling more than $ 58,000.
Mr. Reffitt is in his first semester studying political science at Collin College, a community college near his family’s home in Wylie, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. When asked if the money would cover the rest of his graduation, he said: “Wow, you have no idea. I’m going to go to university now. “
As for others struggling to find out if someone they believe is involved in something dangerous, “you are not only protecting yourself, you are also protecting them,” he said.
“I left my emotions behind to do what I thought was right,” said Reffitt of his father’s account. And although he doesn’t regret his decision, he said, “He’s still in the family and he’s still a stranger.”