Below are excerpts of my April 8 interview with Samuel Doolin, a former U.S. Army Ranger who was arrested in December on weapons charges.
In March, his younger brother, Joshua Doolin, was found guilty of charges related to the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Two of Samuel Doolin’s cousins, Jonny and Olivia Pollock, have also been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 event. They, along with family friend Joseph Hutchinson, are on the run from the FBI.
Polk County sheriff’s deputies arrested Samuel Doolin on Dec. 8 and accused him of possession of illegal firearms. I spoke with him outside the Pollock residence near Lakeland, Florida, as part of a documentary project I am doing.
On facing criminal charges
If it wasn’t for Christ, I don’t know what I would do. I’ve had people walk up to me and say, basically, take the plea deal. We need you outside there. We don’t want you in there. And to me that I understand where they’re coming from. They’re coming from a point of love. But most people aren’t focused on Christ when they’re talking about that. They’re focused on their love for you. And so to me, though, I don’t want people to pity me, That almost is offensive because it’s saying that what I’m standing for doesn’t have the worth. It’s not worth the price. But to me, that’s where I kind of get that idea. If I was willing to go overseas and fight people, I don’t know for a government that doesn’t love its people, then why not stand here in America for the very things I swore to defend? And God, if God wants me out of prison, he’ll keep me out. If he wants me in prison, I’ll serve him in prison. There is no losing.
On whether he has insight into why his cousins, Jonny and Olivia Pollock, along with family friend Joseph Hutchinson, decided to go on the run rather than face FBI charges related to the Jan. 6 protest in Washington, D.C.
I do. I talked with them extensively before… Olivia and Joey. We were talking about their case, trying to get them set up to go pro se and to win as much as possible, win against the the the case because they were they were using their own lawyers against them. You know it, the public defender is really a public pretender. You may have a good one, but most of them are going to be worried about that bar license getting taken away. So they’re not going to fight for you like they’re supposed to. They’re trying to work out a deal. You don’t make deals with the devil. And so you either believe the man’s innocent or guilty. And so they were working against them. They weren’t actually doing their job. And so some of them some of them, again, I’ll leave the exception for here and there. But there was that fear of the judge, the fear of their bar license and stuff. And so them not coming back. I believe it’s it’s simply the fact that they knew they weren’t going to get justice. They knew the people, kind of like the founding fathers said. We called out to our brethren. They they called over to England and said, Hey, brothers, all this wrong is happening to us.
Help us out. Give us some relief. They didn’t care. There was too much good going on and they just didn’t want to get involved the same way. They’re like, We don’t mind standing trial. If we would get a just just punishment if the punishment fit the crime, if we were going to actually get a fair shot and be able to tell our side. But you notice all these judges have closed doors where you don’t actually get to hear what’s going on in the courtroom. You can’t fill the courtroom with people. They’re not held accountable. And none of this is legal. You can’t even get the sheriff to to admit that he was a part of it. And then when you do, he’s like, well, the non compliance thing, he’s not there to defend them. And so that’s that’s part of the reason the American people just are too comfortable. And so to to our shame, we don’t love our brother. And so that’s where they’re coming from, is that if they were willing to go to jail, they were willing they they think like me, they’re willing to go to jail. They’re willing to preach the gospel in prison. We understand their our lives are not our own, that we are here as ambassadors for Christ.
But we also have a civil duty, that we were given a duty by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and just by God to take care of and protect those liberties for the next generation. And if we believe that none of this is legal, that these these particular civil servants don’t have authority in what they’re doing according to Constitution, just legitimacy, and they’re not following the rules themselves, then why would I put myself under someone that doesn’t have the authority? It doesn’t make any sense to do that. It may not be comfortable to most people to think that way because men with guns will come and kidnap you. But I believe that’s partially the reason. Just trying to trying to stay around, hopefully to wake up America, hopefully to to save not themselves, but to save the save that last little chance of truth and justice for for the next generation. That’s really where it’s at, is for those those kids, because there’s no hope for us to live a peaceful life as far as the government treating us right. We’re going to we’re going to live this out in under slavery, but there’s a chance for our children. And so that’s where I believe they’re coming from.
On what life on the run must be like for Jonny, Olivia and Joey
So the way I look at that, it’s again, it’s like (retired U.S. Army Special Forces member) Jeremy Brown, I believe, was just convicted (of firearms violations and other crimes) and everyone knows he’s innocent. Everyone knows that. You know, they thank you for your service when it’s Veterans Day and stuff. The churches have a big patriotic Sundays and all these different things, but they don’t know what it means. And then when someone actually stands and doesn’t serve the government, thank you for your services. Thank you for serving the government. There’s the individual that might be actually meaning, well, the individual. I give that honor to the janitor. I give that honor of Thank you for your service. The man that’s serving. But true service is to come back home and deal with the true wickedness. And so like Jeremy Brown dealing with that, he’s being persecuted, but he’s willing to do so. He’s willing to do so. Would we love to live in comfort? Sure. Absolutely. But there’s that civic duty. There’s that duty to God to do what’s right and take on that personal responsibility. And most people, even Christians, sadly, don’t have that. So there’s a little bit of honor to the suffering, you know, as Christ said, about tribulations.
And so in that sense, I would think they have the same mindset as me probably. And so would it be tough? Yeah, I believe it would be tough. Probably not to see see your family. We’re very family oriented people not to get to love on people in different things because we’re people persons. But we grew up on Elijah. We grew up on the Old Testament scriptures and the New Testament where Paul was let down in a basket (his friends helped him escape in a basket that was lowered through a window, according to the Bible) and different things. We grew up on this stuff to where we know there’s a purpose to it all. The suffering is not in vain. And so I know that part. As far as it’s not perfectly joyful for the flesh, but we live in the spirit as far as evil men chasing that’s always going to be wicked.
On social media
I wasn’t really big into media before all this. I kind of started doing that out of necessity. I had friends and family that weren’t talking to me and they were believing, believing Grady’s (Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd) side of the story instead of hearing the matter out. So I started into into that it’s more of an outlet to send out information for me than to bring it in. I know there’s people that are like minded out there. They want us to believe there’s not. The majority are like minded like us. They might be afraid to speak as boldly, but they’re like minded. And then there’s a few people that either, for lack of a better word, they’re they’re either weak in their mind and they don’t actually critically think or they’re they’re just deceived. They don’t know any better, for lack of a better term, or they’re Sons of Baal. They’re out there to do wickedness. And those are the ones we’re really talking about. It’s not the person that just doesn’t agree. They’re not looking for truth. And you can see that in the comments. And those are the ones I call the Sons of Baal. They would be like the paid actors that kind of get on there and do the government’s bidding or Satan’s bidding. I try not to listen to that. There’s too much work to be done to get caught up in what they’re thinking.
On his childhood education
We were public school. But me and my little brother were pulled out and I was pulled out in fifth grade. So elementary school. So I finished elementary and that’s it. And so we were homeschooled, aka we drove our mother nuts in about a month and she she couldn’t take that anymore. And so we ended up when we needed to, though, we went and grabbed a GED for Dummies. And I’d read it. We knew how to learn. We just didn’t like to learn what we didn’t like to learn. And so we started self teaching, for lack of a better term, as far as the law enforcement and stuff and the upbringing. We grew up around each other as far as the farming life and just being of the same values. We went to the same home church and just learned the importance of critically learning the scriptures and learning to critically think about things, discerning right and wrong for yourself according to the Word of God and seeing what’s the reasoning behind both sides kind of thing. So trying to learn that stuff. A biblical foundation as far as history goes, learning our founding Fathers, learning about the Constitution, actually what those mean, the background.
On the firearms that authorities took from him when arresting him in December 2022
If this was, if we were in common law court and that we actually had a trial by jury just not by name only, and it’s actually a government set up thing, then I could tell the whole truth and whatnot. But because we’re in statutory law and the King’s Law and they don’t care about the Constitution and stuff, there’s no reasoning with them. I’ll just say I believe the Second Amendment. And so as far as the guns and the attachment there, I grew up with firearms. I grew up with muzzle loaders and just grew up on that and learning how to to accurately reload and different things. I grew up on WWII rifles. I learned to fix just about anything broken. I worked for the gun shop and fixed stuff. When I got to the military, I worked with just about every gun there and learned how to fix it. And so I kind of grew up, that’s that’s my little specialty, basically. And so as far as that goes, when I got home, I was wanting to I put in to join the state guard, which never got set up, but I came home, I got kicked out over the COVID stuff and I put in for the state guard and they never set it up. But the Second Amendment says a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Well, a well-regulated means in good working order, not regulation as in restriction. And so a militia in good working order. So a posse for the modern term so people would understand a posse, the people being in good order, being ready to stand up and grab what they need and go help is necessary for the security of a free state. Aka if you don’t have a militia, if the people aren’t presently ready, then you do not have a free state. We don’t have a free state. We don’t have a free country. And so the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The militia and the people are the same. But if we were saying they’re different, the people, you don’t have right to to mess with their firearms at all. But that being said, if if we we the people are going to complain and say the government takes too much on itself and that they need our civil servants need to give us back the power, the problem is we’re not ready for that power. We’re complaining, but we’re not actually taking on the personal responsibility. And so the same thing with the weapons and stuff. How many people that say they believe the Second Amendment not not pointing fingers at you. I’m just saying, how many people that are even who are about it are actually prepared to step in and fill that gap in that responsibility and say, well, the natty guard is federal and that’s supposed to be in DC or the State Guard is for the state.
But the people have to be willing and able already to fill that gap. And so that tangent kind of has to go with that. But that’s that’s my mindset. So I came back home and the only thing I had was my old black powders and a WWII rifle. So I had that loaded up, stuck in the back of the truck and and a black powder revolver, because that’s all I had at the time when I got back home. So I’m like, well, this is what I’ll use. I’m not going to be like that lady who went to to eat with her parents. And because the Florida law, I believe, said that, you know, without the license you can’t carry. So she didn’t bring it in and there was a mass shooting and she she beat herself up the rest of her life because the government took away that fundamental right. But the government can’t take it away. You either live it out or you don’t. And so regardless of the consequences, Daniel, when they made the law that he could pray to no other God, he opened the windows. He didn’t hide it. He just went about what he would have normally done daily if there was no law. And so the same way, that’s the way I believe. I’m like, do what you believe, according to God and just and what’s good for your community. Regardless of the consequences of you, that’s the only way things change. Rosa Parks and different things like that we grow up on, but we don’t actually believe it. As far as the firearms, I then I had built out 80% lowers and so I mill them out there legal and so I had myself an 80%. So I built it out in the same thing I was going to do with a Glock. A friend had given me one before the Army, and so I just came from the military. So I still had that fresh on my mind that that civic duty. And so that’s the way I go about life. That’s the attachment they had, is they were their tools to be used when necessary. But kind of like bear, or not bear hunting, but going hiking, you don’t carry a gun because you’re certain a bear will kill you that day. You carry it regardless because the time may come. It’s better to have one and not need one the same way. I wasn’t going to be that lady going beating myself up. So every day I’d throw my duty belt and my rifle in the truck and I’d go about life. And so it’s like people that concealed carry. It’s just a simple part of it. It’s not something you take too much thought into.
On the importance of spreading God’s word
People remember me for being a Ranger, remember me for being maybe even the Bible guy, but not they don’t remember Christ. And that’s the issue. I want to make sure I clear up that, you know, the gospel is that Christ came, God came that the one that made us our creator came, the one that gave us value, loved us so much that even in our wickedness, even though I’m wicked and I don’t, I’m imperfect. And even though, like all even all the wicked leaders that are doing all this wickedness to people, he loved us so much that he sent his own son. He spared not even his own son because of his love for us. And he came. His son came and God in the flesh came and died for our sins, knowing that we will probably reject him, that we might have life. And not just the spiritual life in heaven, but more life on Earth, more abundant and free.
He came to set the captives free. And so that’s that’s the thing I want to get across, that when I speak to the judges and stuff, I try to get it across. If they’ll let me and I don’t wish ill on the people that wish me harm, I really don’t. I look at it. If it’s harm to me, I want that man to know Christ in spite of me. I don’t want him to remember my case or even if he wronged me, I want him to remember Christ and the change his life for that greater thing. And so I want him to have that personal relationship. We can work for God. God doesn’t want us to work for him. He primarily wants us to have that relationship and out of that relationship he will use us. And so the only reason I’m standing and doing all these things is for others, good. The only reason I wish evil that the stop the evil, the fight, the evil is because if that evil won’t turn to God, I still have to remember my brother and love the oppressed. And so that’s that’s where I’m coming from.
It’s about loving your brother. And so I guess that’s the the main point of it all.