At a White House event in October, a reporter asked Donald Trump for his reaction to the arrest of a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter after he had allegedly threatened to assassinate a congressional leader. “You have thousands of people that we’re dealing with and, you know, if one goes haywire,” the president said, before changing the subject midsentence.
At face value, the response might have seemed vaguely persuasive. After all, if just one of the Jan. 6 criminals he pardoned had ended up in legal trouble again, Trump’s reaction might have been defensible.
But the growing list isn’t limited to one name. NBC News reported on the latest in a series of examples:
Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang has been charged with making threatening statements about one of the officers he faced off with at the U.S. Capitol.
Lang was seen on camera at a Jan. 6 fifth-anniversary event this year, telling Metropolitan Police Cmdr. Jason Bagshaw that he should be put down like a dead dog and hung in front of the Capitol. … Prosecutors say Lang approached Bagshaw and pointed at him, quoting Lang as saying, ‘Public execution is the only solution for animals like you,’ and that Bagshaw needed to be dragged ‘out by his ankles’ and thrown ‘in the Potomac.’
The report added that Lang now faces a misdemeanor charge, with prosecutors alleging his statements against Bagshaw constituted threats. (An attorney for Lang, a white supremacist and pro-Trump influencer, did not comment to NBC News about the charge.)
The developments come roughly a month after the same man was arrested in Minneapolis after destroying an ice sculpture that was outside the Minnesota state Capitol.
Complicating matters for the White House, however, is the familiarity of the circumstances surrounding pardoned Jan. 6 rioters who have been rearrested after receiving clemency from Trump.
Almost a month ago, for example, a different pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted in Florida of child molestation and exposing himself to children. (The man, Andrew Paul Johnson, attempted to bribe one of his victims by claiming that the administration would send him money as part of restitution for those who attacked the U.S. Capitol.)
One week earlier, another pardoned rioter, Christopher Moynihan, who was arrested after threatening to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated harassment as part of a plea agreement.
Last fall, Robert Keith Packer, a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal best known for wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt inside the Capitol, was arrested in a dog bite incident. That came on the heels of another pardoned Jan. 6 criminal being convicted on child pornography charges. Two weeks earlier, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted of plotting to kill FBI agents.
They have plenty of company. Zachary Jordan Alam, months after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was convicted in connection with a home invasion. Andrew Taake, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor. Emily Hernandez, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for driving drunk and killing a passenger in another car.
A recent New York Times report noted a variety of other examples, including Brent Holdridge, a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal who was arrested again in May in connection with a string of alleged thefts of industrial copper, and Matthew Huttle, who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in January after he resisted arrest during a traffic stop, shortly after receiving a presidential pardon.
What’s more, this growing list doesn’t include John Banuelos, a Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested in October on kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Banuelos wasn’t pardoned, but he saw his Jan. 6 criminal case dropped by Trump’s Justice Department the day after the Republican’s second inauguration.
To be sure, when making a list of the worst things the president has done since returning to power, the competition is fierce, but his decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, including violent felons, is near the top. But the fact that so many of these recipients continue to run into legal trouble makes Trump’s move look even worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
