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 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.
If he were right, and 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. NPR reported:
A Florida handyman who received a pardon from President Trump for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been convicted of multiple state charges of child molestation and exposing himself to children, prosecutors told NPR. Andrew Paul Johnson, the pardoned rioter, attempted to bribe one victim with money he claimed he would receive as part of restitution for Jan. 6 defendants, police reported. The conviction is the latest case of a pardoned Capitol rioter committing new crimes after receiving a pardon.
On Tuesday, a jury in Hernando County, Fla., found Andrew Paul Johnson guilty of five charges, including molesting a child under 12 and another under 16, as well as lewd and lascivious exhibition. Johnson was acquitted of one charge of sending sexual material to a child.
Johnson will be sentenced next month. A local prosecutor confirmed to NPR that he “faces up to life in prison.”
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.
Last week, for example, 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.
One day earlier, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, Jake Lang, was arrested in Minneapolis after destroying an ice sculpture that was outside the Minnesota state Capitol.
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 W. 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 went on to commit additional crimes makes Trump’s move look even worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
