Former Shaler School District history teacher among those pardoned for actions on January 6
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - When President Trump pardoned the January 6th rioters, police fraternal organizations took special exception to the freeing of those convicted of assaulting police officers. One of those defendants pardoned is Robert Morss -- an Army Veteran who was a part-time history teacher in Shaler at the time of his arrest.
Now, a free man he spoke with KDKA-TV Lead Investigator Andy Sheehan
He served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, so his country owes him a debt of gratitude. But, he then wore his Army Ranger uniform in an assault on the U.S. Capitol and for that, he was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison.
SHEEHAN: They said you went in military gear. Body armor and scissors. That you were going prepared for war. That you were prepared for battle and this was pre-meditated.
MORSS: The only thing pre-mediated about the way I dressed was that I already invested blood and sweat equity into this country that I love so dearly. That's the only reason that I wore the uniform. I was leaving. I had a job interview the next day. Taking over the Capitol was not on my agenda.
In pardoning the Jan. 6th defendants, President Trump drew pointed criticism for freeing those who were convicted of assaulting police officers -- people like Morss who battled with Capitol and Municipal Police, organizing a so-called shield wall and exhorting other protesters to storm the building.
MORSS: When it comes to my situation, the simple assault that I'm guilty of I could have inflicted on them by flicking them on the elbow. I wasn't like I murdered somebody.
SHEEHAN: You were accused of trying to take a baton from a police officer, taking a shield from another officer, organizing what you called a shield wall, and having a heave-ho. Officers were injured in that heave-ho. Isn't that assault on a police officer?
MORSS: What they don't want to show you is the video of my being beaten with that baton numerous times before I decided to disarm that police officer and stop that. Now here's the thing if we wanted to really hurt people we could have. It does break my heart that police officers who were hurt that day were, however, that would not our intent.
In Morss's telling, it was the police who initially provoked the protesters, he says, lobbing flash bangs into the crowd. He also cites FBI informants and about 200 left-wing operatives whom he says dressed as MAGA, inciting the protesters and instigating the assault, luring into them what he calls a lobster trap of violence.
SHEEHAN: But Robert doesn't this sound like an abdication of responsibility? That outside people infiltrated and forced me into taking actions I didn't want to take?
MORSS: I think anyone who gets in a fight and is forced to defend themselves would rather have not been in that situation at all, but I will say I owned my decisions that day. In my sentencing speech, I made the statement that Donald Trump did not force me to do what I did that day. I'll own what I did, but I didn't try to overthrow the government. I'm not an insurrectionist.
SHEEHAN: Do you have remorse for what you did that day?
MORSS: I have remorse for the fact that people were killed. I have remorse for the fact that police officers were injured. I have remorse that my family and friends suffered while I was going through this. What I went through. But for standing up for what I believed in. No. For being an American who has already served his country honorably and wear what I was wearing that day and be willing to proclaim publically that the elections were stolen. No. So, It's a mixed bag.
Watch: Andy Sheehan speaks with Robert Morss
Now, that he's been pardoned by President Trump, Morss wants to get on with his life and get back to teaching. Should the State Department of Education reinstate his teaching certificate?
SHEEHAN: Robert you served three tours of duty in Afghanistan. The nation owes you a debt of gratitude for that. You consider yourself a patriot.
MORSS: Three tours in Afghanistan. I was second ranger battalion. It was an honor. But on my first deployment, I decided to become a high school history teacher because I realized that my country would become the wasteland I was walking through if the next generation did not keep this republic.
Fighting the War On Terror, Morss says he had a calling to teach, and coming back stateside, he attended Penn State. Upon graduation, he began teaching history, part-time in the Shaler School District. Now, that he's been pardoned, he'd like to resume his career.
SHEEHAN: How could parents entrust you with their children to teach them history and civics if you practice what some people would call political violence?
MORASS: I feel students and their parents can find comfort, no harm, in being around me. How often do you have a high school teacher who has contributed to history? That doesn't happen very often.
SHEEHAN: Well, some people would say not in a good way.
MORSS: And that's fair, and that's why having conversations like this is important. For the last four years, there's been a monopoly over what January 6th and the other side of the story has not been discussed, and that's why these conversations are important because I endeavor not just to teach history but to fix it.
Federal prosecutors painted a different story, saying he went to D.C. dressed in military fatigues prepared for battle, and they secured a conviction that he assaulted police by stealing an officer's shield, organizing a shield wall, and exhorting others to storm the Capitol intending to disrupt the certification of the presidential election.
SHEEHAN: People would say you shouldn't teach history, you shouldn't teach civics because your actions betray the peaceful transfer of power.
MORSS: I see what people are coming from but I find it very hypocritical seeing how there are a lot of teachers out there that focus on gender studies and critical race theories that are very damaging to the youth as opposed to people who just wanted to stand up for what they believed in.
SHEEHAN: You're teaching kids that if you don't like the results of representative democracy it's ok to take matters into your own hands.
MORSS: I would say I would want my students to question everything. To question everything in history. Question the Electoral College results. Question yourselves. That's what I want my students to do more than anything. I don't want there to be a division in my classroom between Republicans and Democrats. I would rather there be a division between free thinkers and those about to become free thinkers.
As a convicted felon, the Pennsylvania Department of Education revoked Morss's teaching certificate, but now that he's been pardoned, his record is being expunged. He tells me he'll be asking that his certificate be re-issued so he can teach kids again. Still, Morss concedes he is not a good example to follow.
"I would probably tell kids: Don't go anywhere near that Capitol, It didn't work out so well for me," he said with a laugh.
The State Department of Education says it allows for the reinstatement of teaching certificates in what it calls "certain circumstances."
But in a statement to KDKA Investigates it notes "The Department is unaware of any situation in which an individual requested reinstatement as a result of a presidential pardon."