WASHINGTON — Gina Bisignano’s strategy paid off. For years, the Jan. 6 defendant did her best to drag out the criminal case related to her actions in the Capitol attack, hoping and praying that Donald Trump would be re-elected and pardon her.

On Monday, just two days before her 56th birthday, Bisignano had another reason to celebrate when Trump issued a pardon that erased the case against her. A federal judge signed the dismissal order on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Bisignano became a free woman.

"I have no regrets," Bisignano said, adding that she wouldn't change a thing if "you handed me a million dollars."

That's a common thread among more than a dozen interviews conducted by NBC News with the Jan. 6 criminals who were pardoned by Trump this week. They were unanimous in expressing gratitude for Trump's release, but unlike many of the sentencing hearings held in Washington federal court in recent years, they showed no signs of remorse even as some others expressed remorse. Many people still cling to the false, debunked idea — one Trump fanned when he stood in the Capitol on Monday — that the 2020 election was stolen. While some of those pardoned spoke words of reconciliation, others eagerly hinted at the coming reckoning.

Bisignano told NBC News she believes God placed her in the Capitol West Tunnel, where some of the worst violence occurred on January 6, 2021, where she took up a megaphone and encouraged a group Trump supporters join the fight.

She initially cooperated with law enforcement to testify against a Trump supporter she knew in California. But her testimony wasn't very helpful, with U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson calling Bisignano "a mess" and "probably one of the worst witnesses she's ever heard." Now, Bisignano said, she has "won" and is "even stronger" on the other side of the experience.

"The hunter has become the hunted," she said, predicting that the federal prosecutor pursuing her case would be fired and calling for Jackson to be removed from office. "She needs to be impeached," Bisignano said. "Ms. Amy Jackson, she was on the wrong side of history. I want to talk to her for a minute."

Bisignano wasn't the only one celebrating. Outside the Washington, D.C., jail, supporters quickly purchased MAGA hats from vendors and distributed them to inmates upon their release. One of those who gathered was Eric Ball, whose son Daniel is in jail for detonating an explosive device in the Capitol West tunnel during the riot. Eric Bauer said the riot was a conspiracy: "Anyone who denies this is either extremely evil or extremely stupid," he said.

(Daniel Ball was one of the few rioters still in custody on January 6: He was rearrested on gun charges that coincided with his release in Washington for domestic violence against a law enforcement officer in the strangulation and related to beating.)

Gregory Purdy, who was convicted of six felonies, including assaulting a law enforcement officer, is among those still clinging to false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

"Even though we have different opinions, I believe the people out there are standing up for democracy," Purdy said on Tuesday when he was released from a Washington jail. "I believe there are significant computing problems with our elections."

Caleb Fuller, the younger brother of a father and son, faces a felony charge of civil disorder for resisting police on Jan. 6. After his case was dismissed, he said he still believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he saw no violence during the Capitol riot.

Ryan Wilson, who was convicted of six felonies after prosecutors presented evidence that he used a pipe as a weapon against police in a Capitol tunnel, also called the charges he faced after being released from a Washington jail "bogus" ".

Rachel Powell was sentenced to five years in prison (having served just over a year) for her actions on January 6, 2021, which included using an ice pick to destroy the windows of the Capitol Building. Asked what she would change if she could go back in time after receiving a pardon, Powell said, "You know, when the police get violent and everything starts to spiral out of control, I wish we could all sit down."

Others' thoughts soon became more ominous.

William Sarsfield, convicted of violence at the Capitol, traveled to Washington to await the release of a friend after being released from the federal detention center in Philadelphia.

He was very grateful to Trump for pardoning him and issued a vague threat when asked what he would do next: "Regroup, go home and identify the evil elements in local families and towns because we have to take care of ourselves." house. That’s where it all started,” Sarsfield said, wearing a camouflage hat emblazoned with the words “Biden Sucks.”

Another well-known criminal, Jacob Chansley, posted on X on January 6 that he planned to buy a gun after receiving a pardon and having his gun rights restored. "Everything done in the dark will be exposed!" he continued.

But Purdy and some others did sound conciliatory.

"We are still brothers and sisters and we still have to love each other. ... You have to make sure you don't have hatred in your heart for anybody," Purdy told NBC News. "So to my liberal brothers and sisters, I extend my arm and say, let's find common ground."

Guy Reffit, who was reported by his son for his role on Jan. 6, said in an interview shortly after his son was released from prison that he loved his son. His son Jackson told MSNBC earlier Wednesday that he "can't imagine being safe now" now that his father has been released from prison and he bought a gun to protect himself.

For the most part, those who have been granted pardons have been effusive about Trump, whose false claims that the 2020 election was stolen set off a chain of events that led many of them to travel as the Electoral College results were about to be certified Capitol.

"Thank you for bringing my family back together again. Without him, I wouldn't be out now," Powell said of Trump.

An inmate at a Washington, D.C., jail told a small crowd gathered outside by phone on Monday that he and others had been following Trump's mention of pardoning Jan. 6 convicts in a speech shortly after his inauguration.

"You're going to see a lot of action against the J6 hostages," Trump told a packed crowd of supporters in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall. The speech is more "unified".

Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia, was found guilty by a federal jury on charges including seditious conspiracy, and Trump commuted 18 years to his sentence. In one of his first stops after his release, Rhodes praised the president for doing "the right thing" and said he and others did not receive a "fair trial" before a "fair jury." (A federal appeals court upheld multiple convictions on Jan. 6, considering and dismissing claims of jury bias.)

Reporters spotted Rohde in a House office building in the Capitol on Wednesday. He said he was here to advocate for the release of another Oath Keeper, Jeremy Brown, who remains in jail after being convicted of other federal charges unrelated to Jan. 6.

"He needs a pardon, too," Rhodes said. "No one was left behind."