Rerun

recurring scandal

The recurring arrests of pardoned January 6 defendants on new charges

Embed this timeline

For an email newsletter, use the story's image instead and link it to the story: https://rerunwire.com/s/arrests-of-pardoned-january-6-defendants-on-new-charges/card.png

Links in the embed lead to this page; its address never changes.

You're probably here because of the Aug 2026 rerun. This is the 13th time since 2025 this story has run. The previous rerun was Mar 2026.

About this story

On January 20, 2025, President Trump commuted the sentences of 14 people convicted of offenses tied to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The same order pardoned everyone else convicted of related offenses and told the Attorney General to seek dismissal of pending January 6 indictments. Since then, a number of the people covered by that clemency have been arrested, charged, convicted or sentenced in other cases and drawn news coverage. Some cases involve conduct alleged after the pardon, such as Zachary Alam's May 2025 breaking-and-entering charge and Christopher Moynihan's October 2025 felony charge over a threat against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Others were pending or older cases, and some defendants have argued that the pardon should cover unrelated convictions. In a report dated December 18, 2025 and updated June 3, 2026, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) counted at least 40 pardoned defendants "rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021," and said at least 12 had allegedly reoffended since their pardons. Because the count starts in 2021, it includes cases from before the pardons and is not a reoffense rate.

Sources: 1, 2

20162026

Aug 2026 – Sep 2026 Bryan Betancur, Metro hair-touching assault cases

Betancur was convicted of illegally entering the Capitol on January 6 and served time in federal custody. President Trump later pardoned him (FOX 5 DC; NBC Washington). In 2026, after the January 2025 pardon, he was charged in D.C. and Arlington County, Va., with assault. The charges came from videos of himself touching women's hair on Metro trains. FOX 5 DC dates the D.C. incident to February and NBC Washington dates it to March 2. On Aug. 12, 2026, D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein found him guilty of simple assault. On Aug. 13 he was sentenced to 180 days with credit for time served (FOX 5 DC). On Sept. 24, 2026, days after his release, he was arrested in an Arlington courtroom on the pending Arlington assault and battery case, and a bond hearing was set for Sept. 25 (FOX 5 DC; NBC Washington).

  • fox5dc.com article
    A D.C. judge found Bryan Betancur guilty of simple assault after he secretly filmed himself touching a woman's hair on a Metro train and posted the video online.
  • fox5dc.com article
    Betancur was sentenced Thursday to 180 days, with credit for time served
  • fox5dc.com article
    He was arrested in court Thursday after a judge ordered his bond be revoked, court officials said.
  • youtube.com video

Sources: fox5dc.com needs a second source · nbcwashington.com needs a second source

Mar 2026 – Apr 2026 Daniel Tocci sentenced in a child sexual abuse material case

Daniel Tocci of Amherst, Mass., was charged over January 6 with destruction of government property and disorderly conduct in a restricted building. Prosecutors dropped those charges in January 2025 after Trump's pardon. Investigators had found more than 100,000 child sexual abuse files on his devices during a November 2023 search tied to his January 6 case. He was charged in that case in November 2024 and pleaded guilty in September 2025. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni sentenced him to four years in prison plus five years of supervised release. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported the sentencing as taking place on March 25, 2026, and the U.S. Attorney's Office announced it on March 30, 2026. This is a boundary case for the story: the conduct came before the pardon and the case was filed before it, so it is a separate pre-existing case, not an arrest on new conduct after the pardon. His lawyer had sought dismissal, arguing that all the evidence stemmed from his January 6 case and a warrant that Trump had said should never have been issued.

  • nbcwashington.com article
    Daniel Tocci's attorney had previously argued that the case should be dismissed because "all the evidence" stemmed from his Capitol siege case.
  • justice.gov statement
    Daniel Tocci, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to four years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.
  • gazettenet.com article
    U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni sentenced Daniel Tocci, 31, on March 25.

Sources: nbcwashington.com needs a second source · justice.gov needs a second source · bostonglobe.com needs a second source · gazettenet.com needs a second source

Jan 2026 Watchdog tallies at the fifth anniversary

Around the fifth anniversary of January 6, The 19th reported on a December 2025 report by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The report found that at least 33 pardoned January 6 defendants "have been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021." The 19th added that many of the incidents came before the pardons, and that four of those defendants allegedly reoffended after receiving them. CREW's report is dated December 18, 2025, was updated on June 3, 2026, and says it builds on a June 2025 CREW analysis. The figures were higher in the June 2026 update, after the anniversary period. That version counts at least 40 pardoned defendants rearrested, charged or sentenced since January 6, 2021, and says at least 12 "have allegedly reoffended since receiving their pardons." Because both counts start from January 6, 2021, the larger figure includes cases from before the January 20, 2025 pardons (archive note). Neither figure is a post-pardon reoffense rate.

  • citizensforethics.org statement
    At least 12 pardoned insurrectionists have allegedly reoffended since receiving their pardons.
  • dcreport.org article
    Many incidents occurred before the pardons; only four insurrectionists allegedly reoffended since receiving their pardons.

Sources: citizensforethics.org needs a second source · dcreport.org needs a second source

Nov 2025 – Mar 2026 Andrew Paul Johnson, charged, convicted and sentenced in Hernando County, Fla.

Johnson's January 6 case and pardon: In 2024 Johnson pleaded guilty to nonviolent charges for entering the Capitol through a broken window and cursing at police. Chief Judge James Boasberg sentenced him to one year in prison. He received a full pardon in January 2025. New case: Johnson was arrested in a suburb of Nashville, Tenn., on Aug 26, 2025, on Florida state charges of child molestation and lewd exhibition. The Intercept reported that the arrest came eight days after a warrant was issued. He was arraigned in Hernando County in October 2025 and pleaded not guilty. Police reported that he tried to keep the children quiet by promising them a share of restitution money he expected over January 6. Status: Convicted on five counts and acquitted on one (Feb 10, 2026). Sentenced to life in prison (Mar 5, 2026). Pardon scope: These are state charges, and none of the sources reviewed mention any ruling on whether the pardon applied. Before or after the pardon: both. NPR reported trial testimony that Johnson came into the family's life in 2023. NPR also reported that the boy described abuse that year, before Johnson's April 2024 guilty plea, and that the abuse resumed after his release. The Intercept reported that a 2025 arrest affidavit says the child told their mother that Johnson molested them three times over six months in 2024. Response: The Intercept and NPR reported that Johnson's attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

  • opb.org article
    Johnson was acquitted of one charge of sending sexual material to a child.
  • NPR article
    On Aug. 26, 2025 — just seven months after Johnson received a full presidential pardon — law enforcement located him in Tennessee
  • theintercept.com article

Sources: opb.org needs a second source · NPR reliable · theintercept.com needs a second source · fox13news.com needs a second source

Nov 2025 John Banuelos charged in a 2018 Utah kidnapping and sexual assault case

This fits the thread as a pre-existing case that surfaced after release, not new conduct after the pardon. Banuelos was charged federally in March 2024 with firing a gun into the air at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. CBS called him the only Jan. 6 defendant accused of firing a gun on Capitol grounds. He pleaded not guilty and never went to trial. After the pardon, the Justice Department moved on Jan. 21, 2025 to dismiss his case, and he was released. A Salt Lake County warrant was issued on Oct. 1, 2025, charging one count of aggravated kidnapping and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault (KSL), all first-degree felonies. He was arrested in Cicero, Illinois on Oct. 17, 2025. The alleged conduct happened in June 2018, so it predates Jan. 6 and is not conduct after the pardon. Prosecutors say a DNA match in August 2025 linked him to it.

  • cbsnews.com article
    Prosecutors allege John Banuelos, 40, attacked a woman in the Salt Lake City area in 2018, three years prior to his alleged involvement in the Capitol siege
  • NBC News article
    A warrant for his arrest was issued in Salt Lake County on Oct. 1 on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault
  • ksl.com article
    Banuelos made his initial appearance on his kidnapping and sexual assault charges on Friday via video. His next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
  • youtube.com video

Sources: cbsnews.com reliable · NBC News reliable · ksl.com needs a second source · cbsnews.com reliable

Oct 2025 Taylor Taranto convicted and sentenced on 2023 charges from his arrest near Obama's home

Taranto faced charges over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and CBS News (via KWTX) describes him as a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant. Separately, he faced 2023 charges stemming from livestreaming a bomb threat as he drove around former President Barack Obama's Washington neighborhood. After a bench trial (NBC, Bloomberg Law), he was convicted of those 2023 charges. He was also found guilty of illegally carrying two firearms without a license and unlawfully possessing ammunition at the time of his arrest (KWTX). NBC reported that his attorney, Carmen Hernandez, criticized the verdict. The day before sentencing, the Justice Department withdrew its first sentencing memo, which mentioned his alleged role in Jan. 6. CBS News reported that the two prosecutors who filed it were then placed on leave. On Oct. 30, 2025, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced him to 21 months. Because he had spent longer than that in pretrial detention, this amounted to time served. Nichols also ordered three years of supervised release (KWTX). This was a pre-existing 2023 case that ended after the pardon, not a new arrest for conduct after the pardon.

  • kwtx.com article
    Taylor Taranto, a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant who was later convicted of 2023 charges stemming from livestreaming a bomb threat as he drove around former President Barack Obama's D.C. neighborhood, was sentenced Thursday to time served and three years of supervised release.
  • NBC News article
    Taranto's attorney, Carmen Hernandez, blasted the verdict.
  • youtube.com video

Sources: kwtx.com needs a second source · NBC News reliable · news.bloomberglaw.com needs a second source

Oct 2025 Christopher Moynihan charged over a threat to Hakeem Jeffries

Christopher P. Moynihan was convicted in 2022 of obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. He also pleaded guilty to five other riot-related counts and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was pardoned in January 2025, on President Trump's first day back in office. In October 2025, New York State Police arrested him on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat. The charge was based on text messages a police complaint says he sent on Oct. 17, 2025, about Jeffries. He was arraigned that Sunday. That conduct came after the pardon. On Feb. 5, 2026, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, misdemeanor second-degree aggravated harassment, and agreed to three years of probation.

  • Public Broadcasting Service article
    A man whose convictions for storming the U.S. Capitol were erased by President Donald Trump's mass pardons has been arrested on a charge that he threatened to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
  • ABC News article
    He is the first pardoned Capitol rioter to be arrested over alleged political violence.
  • crimewatch.net statement
    plead guilty in the Town of Clinton Court to Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree, a Class A Misdemeanor
  • youtube.com video

Sources: Public Broadcasting Service reliable · ABC News reliable · ktar.com needs a second source · crimewatch.net needs a second source

May 2025 Zachary Alam arrested for burglary

A federal jury convicted Zachary Jordan Alam of Centreville, Virginia, of felonies including assaulting officers, civil disorder and destroying government property. The charges included smashing the Speaker's Lobby door panel on January 6, 2021. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in November 2024. President Trump pardoned him on January 20, 2025. Henrico County police said in a statement that officers answered a breaking-and-entering call. The homeowner said an unknown man had come in through a back door, and police said they arrested Alam in a nearby neighborhood on May 9, 2025. Law&Crime reported that the break-in happened at about 11 p.m. on May 8. The Associated Press, as published by WSLS, reported that he was charged with felony burglary. WTVR listed the charges as residential breaking and entering and vandalism. The AP reported that Alam's attorney, Dannie Sutton, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Law&Crime reported that he was convicted in the fall of 2025 of breaking and entering an occupied home and grand larceny. It also reported that in May 2026 a Henrico judge sentenced him to seven years to serve, with 33 more years suspended. The burglary happened after the pardon, so it is new conduct, not an older case that came to light after his release.

  • wsls.com article
    A Virginia man has been charged with felony burglary after being pardoned for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot
  • youtube.com video

Sources: usnews.com needs a second source · wtvr.com needs a second source · lawandcrime.com needs a second source

Mar 2025 – Jul 2025 Edward Kelley — ruling on the pardon's scope and life sentence

Edward Kelley, 36, of Maryville, Tennessee, was charged over his actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In January 2025, President Trump pardoned him along with roughly 1,500 other January 6 defendants. Kelley also had a separate case in Tennessee. After a three-day jury trial, he was convicted on November 20, 2024 of conspiracy to murder federal employees, soliciting a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat. The case came from a plot to kill FBI special agents who had investigated him over January 6, as well as other federal, state and local law enforcement officers. Because the conviction came before the pardon, this is an existing case, not new conduct after the pardon. Kelley's lawyers argued that the pardon should cover the plot. The Justice Department said it did not, and a federal judge ruled that it did not. On July 2, 2025, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan sentenced Kelley to life in prison in Knoxville. Kelley's lawyer wrote that no one was directly threatened by Kelley and no one was injured. The lawyer also argued that Kelley did not deserve the same sentence as a terrorist who had injured or killed people.

  • NBC News article
    A federal judge ruled that Trump's pardon did not apply to the murder plot.
  • justice.gov statement
    Edward Kelley, 36, of Maryville, Tennessee, was sentenced to life in prison today in the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Sources: NBC News reliable · justice.gov needs a second source

Jan 2025 Matthew Huttle killed during attempted arrest at Indiana traffic stop

Huttle pleaded guilty in November 2023 to entering and remaining in a restricted building, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to six months. He was among the roughly 1,500 people Trump pardoned on the first day of his second term. On Jan. 26, 2025, a Jasper County deputy stopped him for driving 70 mph in a 55 zone and told him he was under arrest for being a habitual traffic violator. Prosecutors said Huttle ran to his car, struggled with the deputy and raised a gun while saying "I'm shooting myself." The deputy then shot him. Reports said Huttle had no additional charges in Indiana after his release. In late February 2025, after this wave's coverage, special prosecutor Chris Vawter found the deputy legally justified; no charges were filed and the investigation is closed. No new criminal case against Huttle was reported, so the case only loosely fits the "arrest on new charges" pattern.

  • NBC News article
    I just want to let you know that I'm a January 6 defendant
  • Yahoo News article
    had no additional charges in Indiana after his release

Sources: lakeshorepublicmedia.org needs a second source · cbsnews.com reliable

Jan 2025 David Paul Daniel's federal child-exploitation case

David Paul Daniel, 37, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers at the Capitol on January 6. He was due to be sentenced on May 5, 2025 (DOJ). NBC News reports he was among the January 6 defendants granted clemency, and both NBC News and Newsweek call it a pardon. He was already facing federal charges in the Western District of North Carolina: sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children. Investigators found the evidence while looking into his January 6 conduct, and Newsweek reports he was arrested on these charges before the pardon. In January 2026, U.S. District Judge Matthew Orso ruled that the pardon "does not apply to the indictment in this case," according to NBC News. In April 2026, NBC News reported that Daniel had reached a plea agreement. This is a case that existed before the pardon and came back into view after his release. It is not new conduct after the pardon. NBC News reports the plea documents describe conduct in 2015 and 2016.

  • Yahoo News article
    child exploitation is not 'conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,'
  • Newsweek (pre–2013) article
    A January 6 rioter pardoned by Donald Trump is facing child sex charges, which he was arrested for prior to his presidential pardon.

Sources: Yahoo News reliable · NBC News reliable · Newsweek (pre–2013) needs a second source · justice.gov needs a second source

Jan 2025 – Feb 2025 Andrew Taake, released under the January 6 pardon while wanted on a 2016 Texas warrant, then arrested

Taake pleaded guilty in December 2023 to assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon on January 6 (bear spray and a metal whip). In June 2024 he was sentenced to 74 months in prison (DOJ). The DOJ said he had been on pretrial release in a pending Texas child-solicitation case when he went to Washington. He was pardoned in the January 20, 2025 clemency and released from federal prison in Colorado. The Harris County DA's office said it had asked federal authorities to hold him on a pending 2016 charge of online solicitation of a minor (CBS; Texas Tribune). The two outlets describe that case differently. CBS says the victim was 17. The Texas Tribune says the charge involved an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old. He was arrested on that warrant in Leon County, Texas, after more than two weeks as a fugitive (Texas Tribune). The charge came before the pardon; this was not new conduct.

  • cbsnews.com article
    Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending state warrants, will require significant resources,
  • texastribune.org article
    Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody on Thursday after spending more than two weeks as a fugitive

Sources: cbsnews.com reliable · texastribune.org reliable · justice.gov needs a second source

Jan 2025 Daniel Ball rearrested on a gun charge after his January 6 case was dismissed

Federal prosecutors had accused Daniel Ball of Florida of throwing an "explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers" during the Capitol riot (NPR). BayNews9 identifies him as a Homosassa man who was arrested in May 2023. He pleaded not guilty, and his case was dismissed when Trump took office (NPR). Prosecutors said federal agents found a gun and ammunition when they first arrested him on the riot charges (NPR), seized from his home in 2023 (CBS). In August 2024 a Florida grand jury indicted him for "Possession of a Firearm or Ammunition by a Convicted Felon" (NPR). After he was released from detention on the January 6 charges, the Justice Department had him rearrested on that indictment (NPR), days after the pardon (CBS). The gun case was already pending and did not involve conduct after the pardon. On Feb. 7, 2025, Ball's defense attorney argued that the gun case should be dismissed under the executive order's direction to dismiss "all related cases" (CBS). In February 2025, after this wave's dates, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida moved to dismiss the gun indictment with prejudice. The motion cited Trump's January 20, 2025 executive order (CBS; NPR).

  • baynews9.com article
    After Jan. 6 chrges were dropped this week, Ball was re-arrested on previous warrant accusing him of being a felon in possession of a weapon
  • NPR article
    After Ball was released from detention on his Jan. 6 charges, the Justice Department indicated it planned to pursue the gun case and had him rearrested.

Sources: baynews9.com needs a second source · NPR reliable · cbsnews.com reliable

Data: JSON · CSV · about the data

Related stories