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Pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants

Clemency proclamation issued by Donald Trump From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants
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On January 20, 2025, during the first day of his second term, United States president Donald Trump granted blanket clemency to all people, nearly 1600, convicted of or awaiting trial or sentencing for offenses related to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that occurred near the end of his first presidential term. Most of them received full pardons, while the sentences of 14 members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys were commuted. More than 600 rioters had been convicted of or pleaded guilty to assault of or obstructing law enforcement officers and 170 of using a deadly weapon.[1]

Quick facts Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, Ratified ...
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Background

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Main articles: January 6 United States Capitol attack, criminal proceedings in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

In the aftermath of his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, Trump repeatedly made false claims that widespread electoral fraud had occurred and that only he himself had legitimately won the election. Although most resulting lawsuits were either dismissed or ruled against by numerous courts,[2][3][4] Trump nonetheless conspired with his campaign team to submit documents in several states (all of which had been won by Biden) which falsely claimed to be legitimate electoral certificates for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.[5] After the submission of these documents, the Trump campaign intended that the presiding officer of the United States Senate, either President of the Senate Pence or President pro tempore Chuck Grassley, would claim to have the unilateral power to reject electors during the January 6, 2021 vote counting session; the presiding officer would reject all electors from the several states in which the Trump campaign had submitted false documents, leaving 232 votes for Trump and 222 votes for Biden, thereby overturning the election results in favor of Trump.[6][7][8] The plans for January 6 failed to come to fruition after Pence refused to follow the campaign's proposals.[9][10]

Bodycam video taken at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021

Trump nevertheless urged his supporters on January 6, 2021, to march to the Capitol while the joint session of Congress was assembled there to count electoral votes and formalize Biden's victory, culminating with hundreds storming the building and interrupting the electoral vote count.[11]

By the end of 2021, 725 people had been charged with federal crimes.[12][13] That number rose to 1,000 by the second anniversary of the attack,[12] to 1,200 by the third anniversary (three-quarters of whom had by then been found guilty)[14][15] and to 1,500 before the fourth anniversary.[16] The Justice Department documented assaults on over 140 police officers and property damage exceeding $2.8 million to the Capitol building and grounds. Approximately 170 defendants had been accused of using deadly or dangerous weapons against law enforcement officers, including fire extinguishers and bear spray.[17]

Throughout the Biden administration, Trump characterized the January 6 defendants as "political prisoners" and "hostages."[17] He promoted a revisionist history of the event by downplaying the severity of the violence and spreading conspiracy theories.[18][19] House Republicans also spread a fringe conspiracy that the FBI orchestrated the attack.[20] On January 29, 2022, when over 760 people had been charged,[12] Trump said at a Texas rally that he would be inclined to pardon the rioters if he were reelected in 2024,[21] which he repeated at a Tennessee rally in June 2022.[22] In November, four days before the midterm elections, he said: "Let them all go now!"[23] On May 10, 2023, he said he would be "inclined to pardon many of them" while hedging by saying "a couple of them, probably, they got out of control".[24] On September 15, 2023, he said in an interview that aired two days later: "I'm going to look at them, and I certainly might [pardon them] if I think it's appropriate."[25]

Representative Adam Schiff, who served on the House committee that investigated the attack and was the lead manager during Trump's first impeachment trial, told MSNBC in February 2022 that Trump's offer of pardons suggested that he "condoned" the violence.[26] Representative Pete Aguilar, who was also on the committee, told CNN the same day that he considered Trump's offer to be witness tampering.[27]

On December 8, 2024, as president-elect, Trump said he would pardon the rioters on his "first day" in office except for any he might deem to be "radical, crazy."[28] Then-vice president elect JD Vance stated that pardons should be given to those who "protested peacefully", and not those who did so violently.[29] Vance initially advocated for a blanket pardon in private but thought Trump wouldn't want to do so for political reasons, and was reportedly "100% behind" Trump's decision to grant clemency to all rioters.[30] A week following the pardon, Vance told Face the Nation that he and Trump perceived a "massive denial of due process of liberty" and that the pardon was the "right decision".[31]

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Presidential clemency

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On January 20, 2025, Trump issued a proclamation titled "Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021". The proclamation categorized prior criminal proceedings as a "grave national injustice" against the American people, and positioned the pardons as beginning a "process of national reconciliation".[32] Two inside sources stated that Trump made the decision to give blanket pardons at the "last minute" just days before the inauguration,[33] with one advisor saying Trump said "Fuck it: Release 'em all".[30]

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Members and associates of Oath Keepers with some identified inside the U.S. Capitol

Citing Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, the proclamation established two distinct categories of clemency for individuals involved in the events at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The first category of clemency consisted of sentence commutations to time served for fourteen named individuals. These commutations applied to prominent figures in the January 6 events, including Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes with members Kelly Meggs and Roberto Minuta, Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean, Jeremy Bertino, and Joseph Biggs, and Proud Boy member Dominic Pezzola, who was the first rioter to breach the Capitol building, all of whom had their sentences reduced to time served "as of January 20, 2025".[32][34] The second category consisted of "full, complete, and unconditional" pardons granted to every other defendant convicted in relation to the events of January 6.[32]

The Attorney General was directed to immediately issue pardon certificates to all eligible individuals and ensure the release of any incarcerated persons affected by the pardons. Additionally, the United States Department of Justice was ordered to dismiss "with prejudice" all pending indictments related to January 6 conduct, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons received explicit orders to implement all Justice Department instructions regarding both the releases and the dismissal of pending cases.[32]

On May 13, 2025, Ed Martin announced he would serve as the DOJ Pardon Attorney.[35] On May 22, Peter Ticktin of the American Rights Alliance recommended that Martin pursue full pardons for Rhodes, Biggs, Nordean, Rehl and Pezzola, as well as for two other January 6 defendants (Dan Wilson and Elias Costianes) who were in prison for unrelated charges.[36]

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Affected

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Further information: List of cases of the January 6 United States Capitol attack

Notable pardons granted

See also: Category:People pardoned by Donald Trump

Gained positions

  • Jared Lane Wise, who had been an FBI supervisory agent from 2004 through 2017, was arrested in Oregon on misdemeanor charges in May 2023 related to the attack on the Capitol. According to an FBI agent's affidavit, Wise repeatedly shouted "Kill 'em!" as he watched rioters assault officers outside the Capitol. Wise entered the Capitol through the Senate wing door and remained in the building for around nine minutes. Police body camera footage captured Wise berating officers outside the Capitol, shouting: "Shame on you! I'm former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can't see it." After his pardon, he became a counselor to Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin who was overseeing the "weaponization working group" investigating the FBI.[37]

Organizers

  • Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who had been serving a 22-year sentence for charges including seditious conspiracy.[17]
  • Alan Hostetter, retired police chief, sentenced in December 2023 to 11 years in prison for conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He drove to Washington with hatchets, knives, stun batons, pepper spray, and other gear for himself and others and used a bullhorn to encourage rioters to break the police line.[38][39]

Rioters sentenced for attacking police officers

  • David Nicholas Dempsey, sentenced in August 2024 to 20 years in prison for stomping on police officers' heads, using flagpoles and other objects to attack officers, and spraying bear spray into the gas mask of an officer. His prior criminal record included burglary, theft, and assault.[38][40]
  • Peter Schwartz, sentenced in May 2023 to 14 years for assaulting police officers with a chair and pepper spray. He boasted in a text message that he had "thrown the first chair at cops" and "started a riot". He also had a record of prior violent offenses.[41][42][38]
  • Daniel Joseph "DJ" Rodriguez, sentenced in 2023 to 12.5 years in prison for conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. Rodriguez had shot Officer Michael Fanone, who had been dragged into the mob by another assailant and was lying face-down on the ground, twice with a stun gun held to his neck. Fanone had a heart attack and received other injuries during the attack.[43][41][38] Video footage also showed Rodriguez deploying a fire extinguisher and attacking other officers with a wooden pole.[43]
  • Christopher Joseph Quaglin, member of the Proud Boys, sentenced in May 2024 by a Trump-appointed judge to 12 years in prison for choking and tackling officer Michael Fanone to the ground, attacking other officers with metal bike racks, stolen police shields, and pepper spray.[38][44]
  • Thomas Webster, retired police officer, sentenced in 2022 to 10 years in prison for attacking an officer with a flagpole and tackling him.[41][45]
  • Christopher J. Worrell, a Proud Boy member, sentenced in 2024 to 10 years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray.[38]
  • Thomas Harlen Smith, sentenced in October 2023 to 9 years in prison for, among other violent actions, kicking an officer in the back and knocking him to the ground and hitting two officers in the head with the metal pole he threw at them.[38][46]
  • Albaquerque Cosper Head, sentenced in October 2022 to seven years for dragging officer Fanone face-down down the West Terrace steps and attacking police in the entrance to the Lower West Terrace tunnel.[41][47]
  • Kyle J. Young, pleaded guilty to a single charge and was sentenced in September 2022 to seven years for handing the stun gun to Rodriguez and grabbing Fanone's hand when he tried to protect himself.[41][48]
  • Patrick McCaughey III, sentenced in April 2023 to 7.5 years for using a stolen police riot shield to crush officer Daniel Hodges in a doorframe at the entrance to the Lower West Terrace tunnel.[49][50]
  • Steven Cappuccio, sentenced in November 2023 to seven years for ripping off officer Hodges's gas mask and striking him across the face with his own baton.[51][52]
  • Andrew Taake, sentenced in June 2024 to 6.5 years for attacking officers with bear spray and a metal whip. At the time of the Capitol attack, he was out on bond for soliciting a minor in 2016.[53] The bond was revoked in September 2021, and Houston authorities are looking to rearrest Taake.[54]

Rioters found guilty of and awaiting sentencing for attacking police officers

  • Edward J. Kelley, convicted on November 8, 2024, in federal court in Washington, D.C., of tackling a law enforcement officer from behind and throwing him to the ground and various acts of property damage inside the Capitol. His sentencing had been scheduled for April 7, 2025,[55] when he was pardoned on January 20, 2025.[56][57]
While awaiting trial in December 2022, Kelley had conspired to assassinate the law enforcement agents who had arrested him in May 2022 and those who had searched his home.[58] In November 2024, he was convicted in federal court in Tennessee of conspiring to murder FBI employees, soliciting a crime of violence, and threatening federal officials; the sentencing date was set for May 7, 2025.[56] In early February 2025, Kelley's attorney filed a motion arguing that the pardon for the Capitol riot also covered the murder plot and asking for Kelley's immediate release.[55] The judge rejected the argument, and, in July 2025, Kelley was sentenced to life in prison.[59]

Rioters who had awaited trial for attacking police officers

  • Daniel Ball had been awaiting trial when he was pardoned. He was accused of throwing a device that "flashed and exploded", a wooden leg of a chair or table, and other objects at officers in the Lower West Terrace tunnel, and for damaging a shutter. Investigators searching his Florida residence as part of the case had found a firearm and ammunition, items he was not allowed to possess because of two prior felony convictions. He was served with the arrest warrant on a federal gun charge while still in custody and had been awaiting extradition to Florida.[60][61] However the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa, after initially stating that clemency did not extend to the subsequent charges, ultimately followed an emerging pattern of the Department of Justice under Trump of excusing additional crimes committed outside the riot by filing a motion to drop the indictment; Ball’s case was dismissed on February 25, 2025.[62]
  • Edward Jacob Lang. Was in custody awaiting trial for three assault charges, including attacking officers with a baseball bat.[41][63][64]
  • Andrew Kyle Grigsby. Was in custody awaiting trial on five felony charges, including attacking officers with bear spray.[65][66]
  • David Paul Daniel. Had pleaded guilty for assaulting police officers and was in custody awaiting trial. After he was charged in November 2023, FBI and Mint Hill, N.C., police officers discovered images of Daniel sexually abusing two children under 12 during a search of his home. He is in custody in North Carolina on charges of production and possession of child pornography and pleaded not guilty.[65][67] Daniel has filed to dismiss or suppress these charges with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina[68] because thus far, the Justice Department has not pardoned him for additional crimes uncovered in the course of gathering evidence for the January 6 riot, as they have done for other rioters.[69]

Rioters arrested for entering a restricted area and property damage

  • Theodore Middendorf. Was awaiting trial for striking a window with a flagpole. In May 2024, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in Illinois for committing "an act of sexual penetration" of a 7-year-old child.[65]

Rioters sentenced for entering a restricted area

  • Matthew Huttle, was sentenced in November 2023 to six months in prison and a year of supervised release for entering the Capitol and multiple offices. Huttle had a prior criminal record which included a sentence of 2.5 years in prison for beating and injuring his 3-year-old son.[65] On January 26, 2025, Huttle was shot and killed while in possession of a firearm and resisting arrest during a traffic stop.[65][70]
  • Emily Hernandez. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in federal prison in 2022. She was seen holding Nancy Pelosi's broken nameplate during the riot. Nine days after the pardon, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a woman and injuring her husband in a car crash on January 5, 2022. Hernandez, who was intoxicated, drove the wrong way on Interstate 44 in Missouri and crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle.[71][72]

Commutations

Trump commuted the sentences of 14 individuals. Although their convictions remain on their criminal records, they became eligible for immediate release from prison, as their sentences were commuted to "time served."[32]

Organizers

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Analysis

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Trump's grant of clemency was described by counterterrorism researchers as encouraging future political violence,[76] and Trump later suggested the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers may have a place in the political conversation.[77]

Employees in the Justice Department and legal scholars called the pardons an unprecedented and dangerous use of the pardon that created a mockery of federal law enforcement, their work, and the US justice system. An anonymous senior official in the Justice Department called the pardons a green light signal to political violence and that nothing done during the January 6 attack were wrong. They continued calling the pardons a campaign of personal retribution.[78]

US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, stated during a case on 25 January 2025 that during his time on the bench, he could never recall "such meritless justifications of criminal activity".[79][80] Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and professor at George Washington University Law School called the pardons as an abuse of power by Trump, and it signaled that if they commit crimes on Trump's behalf there would be no accountability. Bruce Ackerman, a law and political science professor at Yale Law School echoed the sentiment calling the action, "..a president pardoning his allies for their participation in a violent coup d'etat".[78]

Many of the pardoned rioters had prior convictions and outstanding charges for rape, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, manslaughter, drug trafficking, and other crimes.[81][82] The Justice Department has made the argument, albeit somewhat inconsistently,[62] that Trump's pardons may extend to cases involving weapons or other crimes uncovered in January 6-related searches.[83]

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Reactions

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A PBS/Marist poll conducted a month before the pardons found that 89% of Democrats, 62% of independents, and 30% of Republicans disapproved of pardons.[84] Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted shortly before and during Trump's pardons found that 58% of people believed Trump should not pardon all those involved in the riot.[85] One month later in late February, 83% opposed pardoning violent participants.[86] Groups as diverse as the Cato Institute[87] and Southern Poverty Law Center[88] also condemned the pardons. NPR reported that some Trump voters expressed disapproval of the sweeping pardons, but that "Trump's staunchest supporters, though, refuse to believe that fellow backers of the president were violent that day" and cited conspiracy theories they read on social media.[84]

Trump

After Trump issued the pardons, he answered affirmatively when a reporter asked if he agreed "that it's never acceptable to assault a police officer". When asked to reconcile that opinion with his having pardoned someone who "drove a stun gun into the neck of a D.C. police officer" (this attack was against Officer Michael Fanone), Trump replied, "Well, I don't know. Was it a pardon? We're looking at commutes. We're looking at pardons." When the reporter confirmed that this individual had been pardoned, Trump added, "OK, we'll take a look at everything." He continued speaking for another minute, adding: "These people have already served a long period of time, and I made a decision to grant a pardon."[89][90]

Prosecutors

In early June 2025, CBS reported that Greg Rosen, a top federal prosecutor, had resigned from the Department of Justice. Within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Rosen had led the Capitol Siege section before Trump disbanded it. Rosen told CBS: "The message that [the pardons] send is that political violence towards a political goal is acceptable in a modern democratic society. That, from my perspective, is anathema to a constitutional republic."[91]

On June 27, 2025, the Justice Department fired two supervising attorneys who had overseen the January 6 prosecutions and a line attorney who had prosecuted the cases.[92]

Pardoned people

Norm Pattis, defense lawyer for the Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs, called the pardons "wonderful" and expressed gratitude that Biggs would have his prison sentence cut short by 13 to 14 years.[93] On June 6, 2025, Biggs, Nordean, Rehl, and Pezzola (who had had their sentences commuted) and Tarrio (who had been pardoned) sued the federal government. They sought $100 million in restitution for what they claimed had been, under the Biden administration, "egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump."[94]

Jacob Chansley's immediate reaction to being pardoned was to post to X that he would buy guns.[95] Stewart Rhodes told reporters that his actions on January 6 were justified and called for the prosecution of the Capitol police who testified against him at his trial and the Justice Department lawyers who were involved in his case.[96] Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes asserted that they wanted Trump to seek revenge on their behalf.[97] On January 22, Stewart Rhodes appeared on Capitol Hill and delivered a speech defending his actions.[98]

Pamela Hemphill objected to the pardons, saying that "We were wrong that day. We broke the law. There should be no pardons" and that accepting the pardon would "contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative" in an attempt to "rewrite history", and that the Justice Department was not weaponized against Trump supporters.[99][100] Hemphill officially rejected her pardon in 2025 and has been speaking out against the disinformation surrounding the 2020 election and events of January 6th ever since.[101]

Jason Riddle also objected to his pardon, telling ABC News in January: "I am guilty of the crimes I have committed and accept the consequences. It is thanks to those consequences I now have a happy and fruitful existence." He also expressed resentment toward Trump, stating: "I don't need to obsess over a narcissistic bully to feel better about myself. Trump can shove his pardon up his ass."[102] To help him formally reject the pardon, the office of Senator Maggie Hassan contacted the federal pardon office.[103]

Rebecca Lavrenz, known on social media as the "J6 Praying Grandma", also declined her pardon, stating that she planned to appeal her case and get her criminal record cleared. Lavrenz was convicted of four misdemeanor charges and sentenced to a year of probation, including six months of house arrest, as well as being ordered to pay a $103,000 fine.[104]

Family of pardoned people

Several family members and friends of convicted defendants celebrated the news outside of the D.C. Jail.[105]

Jackson Reffitt reported his father, Guy Reffitt, days before the attack on the Capitol. He said that, after the attack on the Capitol, his father warned him not to report him because "traitors get shot." Jackson went on to testify against him in court, and Guy was sentenced to over seven years in prison. On January 22, 2025, Jackson told MSNBC he had received death threats and feared what his father, having been pardoned, might do to him.[106]

Police

Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan Police Department officer who had been repeatedly assaulted and crushed by rioters during the attack, responded to the pardons on his Twitter account with a facetious post: "Thanks America."[107][93] Former Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and tased until unconscious during the riot, was asked during a CNN interview what he would say to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Fanone replied, "Go fuck yourself. You're a liar".[108]

Former Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell described the pardons as a "miserable" injustice that removed accountability from rioters who did "irreparable damage to our nation".[109][110] Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn called the pardons a "continuation of the stain that January 6th left on our nation", and said he was not surprised that Trump fulfilled his promise to people he had incited to attack the Capitol and its defenders.[111]

The Fraternal Order of Police—the nation's largest police union, which endorsed Trump in each of the last three elections—joined the International Association of Chiefs of Police in condemning the mass pardon.[112] In a joint statement[113] on January 22, 2025, the organizations said that the pardon of "individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers...sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe".[114]

Democrats

The day of the pardon, Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives during the January 6 attack, described the proclamation as "shameful" and a "outrageous insult" to police officers involved in and injured during the attack, and to the nation's justice system.[93] Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff called the pardon "obscene".[115] Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the pardons, and remarked that Trump was leading the nation to a "Golden Age" for insurrectionary criminals.[93]

On January 27, Senator Patty Murray introduced a symbolic resolution to condemn Trump for pardoning the rioters. It was co-sponsored by all Senate Democrats and no Senate Republicans.[116]

Republicans

Some Republican leaders, including Senators Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, James Lankford, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, and Susan Collins, also expressed disagreement with the mass pardon.[117][118][119]

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson favored the pardon, implying that the attack on the Capitol had been peaceful: "I think what was made clear all along is that peaceful protests and people who engage in that should never be punished."[120]

Representative Lauren Boebert spoke favorably of the pardoned people: "I want to see them for their release, and you know, I'll be the first member of Congress to offer them a guided tour of the Capitol."[121]

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January 6 defendants involved in further crimes and incidents

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Multiple January 6 defendants have been involved in additional crimes before and after being pardoned,[122] including homicide, burglary, theft, stalking, child pornography, sexual assault on minors, and driving under the influence.

  • Zachary Jordan Alam, 33, of Centreville, Virginia, was arrested on May 9, 2025, for allegedly burglarizing a home.[123][124] On November 7, 2024, Alam had been sentenced to eight years in prison, having been convicted of eight felonies and three misdemeanors for his actions in the Capitol attack, during which he smashed the glass door Ashli Babbitt attempted to climb through.[125]
  • Daniel Ball, 38, of Homosassa, Florida, was re-arrested one day after being pardoned. Ball had been convicted of domestic violence battery by strangulation in June 2017, as well as battering and resisting law enforcement with violence in October 2021. In May 2023, Ball was arrested on felony charges in connection with the Capitol attack, during which he threw an explosive device.[126] Ball faced an additional weapons charge for illegal possession of a gun and ammunition as a convicted felon.[127][128][129][130]
  • Bryan Betancur Battisti, 26, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court in September 2024 to two counts of contempt of an anti-stalking order on a D.C. activist. He was sentenced to six months in jail on each count with all but 30 days suspended, for a total of 60 days; he must also serve two years of supervised probation. Battisti had previously served four months in prison after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted grounds in connection with the Capitol attack, during which he helped Isabella DeLuca pass out a table that was later broken up and used to assault police. At the time of the riot, Battisti was on GPS monitoring for a fourth-degree burglary case out of Montgomery County, Maryland; after the riot, he was ordered to serve a previously suspended 18-month sentence. Charging documents described Battisti as a self-professed white supremacist who desired to be a "lone-wolf killer", having voiced support for the perpetrator of the Charlottesville car attack and expressing desire to run people over with a vehicle and kill people in a church.[131]
  • Jeremy Brown of Tampa, Florida, was sentenced in April 2023 to seven years and three months in prison after being convicted of weapons charges. While searching Brown's home in Florida in 2021, federal agents discovered stolen grenades, an unregistered rifle, and a stolen classified document. In February 2025, the Justice Department concluded that Brown's pardon also applied to his weapons conviction.[132][133]
  • Kyle Travis Colton, 36, of Citrus Heights, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2024 on a charge of receiving child pornography between July 2022 and December 2023. During the Capitol riot, Colton grabbed a flagpole a rioter was using to assault a Metropolitan Police Department officer, then gave it back to the rioter, who then fled into the crowd of rioters.[134] If convicted of the child pornography charge, Colton faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.[135][136][137] During trial, Colton unsuccessfully argued that the pardon should extend to his child pornography since it was discovered by a search during an investigation into his participation in January 6.[138] On July 15, 2025, Colton was convicted of one count of receiving child pornography; his sentencing is set for October 27, 2025.[139]
  • David Paul Daniel, 37, was indicted in October 2024 on federal charges of production of child pornography and possession of child pornography. Daniel also allegedly sexually assaulted a minor, made her shower with him, and took nude pictures of her between 2015 and 2019. Another person accused Daniel of similar facts.[140]
  • Emily Hernandez, 22, of Sullivan, Missouri, fatally struck 32-year-old Victoria Wilson and injured Wilson's husband while driving under the influence down the wrong side of Interstate 44 in Franklin County, Missouri, in January 2022. Hernandez served 30 days in federal prison for her role in the Capitol riot, during which she was photographed holding the broken nameplate of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi. On January 29, 2025, Hernandez was sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with Wilson's death.[141][142]
  • Brent John Holdridge, 59, of Arcata, California, was arrested for burglary and grand theft in May 2025 after allegedly stealing industrial copper wire valued at tens of thousands of dollars.[143]
  • Matthew Huttle, 42, of Hobart, Indiana, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Rensselaer, Indiana, on January 26, 2025, less than a week after being pardoned. After being placed under arrest for being a habitual traffic violator, Huttle ran to the driver's seat of his vehicle and retrieved a firearm, claiming that he was going to shoot himself. The Jasper County deputy involved in the shooting was later cleared of any wrongdoing.[144] At the time of his death, Huttle had at least 13 criminal convictions as well as a history of driving offenses, including a 2005 conviction for driving while intoxicated; his most recent case had been opened in May 2022. Huttle pleaded guilty to a battery case from Lake County, Indiana, in 2010, admitting to spanking his son "so hard that he left bruises all over the child's backside". He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and was released on May 12, 2013.[145] In August 2023, Huttle had accepted a plea agreement in his Capitol riot case, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. In November 2023, he was sentenced to six months in federal prison followed by 12 months of supervised release. Huttle was released in July 2024.[146]
  • Daryl Johnson, 52, of St. Ansgar, Iowa, was arrested and charged with invasion of privacy, a misdemeanor, after allegedly using his cell phone to secretly record women tanning in his father's salon.[147] He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison, also needing to pay nearly $4,000 in fines and register as a sex offender.[148] Johnson and his son Daniel had each pleaded guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder for their actions during the Capitol attack. Daryl Johnson posted a message on Facebook after the riot calling for "hangings on the front lawn of the capitol".[149]
  • Edward Kelley, 35, of Maryville, Tennessee, was convicted in November 2024 and sentenced to life in prison in July 2025 for conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat. Earlier that month, Kelley had been convicted of three felonies: civil disorder, destruction of government property, and assaulting law enforcement.[150][151] While awaiting trial on these charges, Kelley developed a "kill list" of FBI agents and others who participated in the investigation. A co-defendant testified that he and Kelley planned to attack to the FBI field office in Knoxville, Tennessee, with car bombs and incendiary devices attached to drones, in addition to assassinating FBI employees in their homes and in public places. Kelley was recorded stating: "Every hit has to hurt. Every hit has to hurt."
  • Andrew Quentin Taake, 36, of Houston, Texas, was charged with online solicitation of a minor following a 2016 incident in which he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 15-year-old girl. During the Capitol attack, Taake used bear spray and a metal whip to assault officers. He was caught after bragging about the incident to a woman he met on an online dating app. Taake pleaded guilty in 2023, and in June 2024, he was sentenced to six years in prison.[152][153]
  • Taylor Taranto, 39, of Pasco, Washington, was convicted on May 20, 2025, of illegally carrying two firearms without a license, unlawfully possessing ammunition, and false information and hoaxes, all connected to a 2023 live streamed video in which he claimed that he was on a "one-way mission" to blow up the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Taranto was arrested the following day while live streaming near former president Barack Obama's house in Washington, D.C.[154]
  • David Walls-Kaufman, 69, was ordered in June 2025 to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband Jeffrey L. Smith during the Capitol attack.[155]
  • Daniel Edwin Wilson, 49, was ordered to return to prison to serve the remainder of his five-year sentence for separate firearm convictions after being erroneously released from custody. In June 2022, law enforcement executing a federal search warrant seized six firearms from Wilson's home, which he was prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon.[156]
  • Shane Jason Woods, also known as Shane Castleman, 44, of Auburn, Illinois, fatally struck 35-year-old Lauren Wegner and injured two other people while driving down the wrong side of Interstate 55 in Skokie, Illinois, in November 2022.[157] His blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.[158] Woods was the 500th person arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, as well as the first to be charged with assaulting a member of the media.[159] During the riot, Woods tackled a female Capitol Police officer whom he outweighed by more than 100 pounds, as well as a Reuters cameraman.[160] On October 4, 2023, Woods was sentenced to 54 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release for his role in the Capitol attack.[161] On April 30, 2025, Woods was acquitted of first-degree murder in Wegner's death; however he was convicted of aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide.[158] On August 19, 2025, Woods was sentenced to 17 years in prison for Wagner's killing.[162]
  • Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser who co-organized Trump's "Save America" rally on the day of the Capitol attack, did not attend a virtual hearing on July 9, 2025. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks found her in civil contempt and ordered her to pay $2,000 a day until she responded to the subpoena. U.S. Capitol police officers had subpoenaed her in early 2024 seeking information for their lawsuit against Trump.[163]
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