Calvin Zastrow thought he was in trouble when a prison guard banged on his cell door late Thursday night, interrupting his sleep. Zastrow, who was in prison over a peaceful pro-life protest, found out moments later that he was going free thanks to a pardon issued by President Donald Trump.
While Trump announced Thursday afternoon that he was pardoning 23 pro-life protesters who had been targeted by the Biden administration, Zastrow did not immediately find out because he had been stuck in his prison cell for six days due to a prison lockdown. He only heard the news when he was woken up by prison guards at 10:00 p.m. By 11:30 he had been processed out of Federal Correctional Institute, Thomson in Illinois, where he had spent the last three months.
“They came and banged on my door loud and woke me up and that’s never a good sign when a guard comes and bangs on your door,” he told The Daily Wire Friday morning. “But they said, ‘hey, you got pardoned, you’re out.”
After he was told the news, Zastrow, 64, gathered up his Bible, the letters people had written to him, some books, and his hat and coat. He was freed at the same time as Jonathan Darnel, another pro-lifer who had been serving 34 months in Thomson.
NEW: Cal Zastrow, one of the pro-lifers who was just pardoned and freed by Trump, poses with his wife outside the federal prison where he spent the last three months thanks to Biden's DOJ. pic.twitter.com/WMEX5Q5MTr
— Leif Le Mahieu (@leif_lemahieu) January 24, 2025
Zastrow’s pardon comes nearly a year after he was convicted in Nashville of violating the FACE Act and civil rights conspiracy over a peaceful protest at an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee in March 2021. During that protest, Zastrow and others sang, prayed, and urged women not to get abortions. […]
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