A couple of weeks ago, the public learned about a Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested on a gun charge in Texas more than a year after receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. Just days earlier, law enforcement officials in Florida announced a prostitution, human trafficking and child predator sting, which led to the arrest of two more Jan. 6 participants who had also received pardons from the incumbent president.
Two weeks before that, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter reached a plea agreement with prosecutors over charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children. Those developments come three weeks after a different Jan. 6 rioter who received a presidential pardon was sentenced to four years in prison on child pornography charges. Earlier in the month, a different Jan. 6 rioter, who was also rescued by Trump, was sentenced to life in prison for molesting two children.
Well at least they’re victimless crimes…
It’s hard not to wonder: Just how many pardoned Jan. 6 rioters have run into fresh trouble with the law after receiving clemency from Trump? As it turns out, an answer has come into focus: Lawfare, a nonprofit legal issues publication, published a study this week that found at least 97 people who were charged with crimes in connection with the assault on the Capitol and who have been accused of new crimes. The New York Times noted that the total is “larger than previously known.”
Jeezus.
On the upside, some of them were hired by the Trump regime before they got around to committing new crimes.
Last summer, for example, Trump’s Justice Department hired Jared Wise, a former FBI agent who participated in the Jan. 6 riot and was filmed urging his fellow insurrectionists to “kill” police officers. This week, The Washington Post also reported on a rioter named Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 14 days in jail in 2023 and who was recently hired for a sensitive counterterrorism job in a Pentagon office “that manages highly classified military operations.”
Seems like a wise move.
That said, the Pentagon again made no effort to deny the accuracy of the reporting, and a spokesperson for the department described Irizarry as “a qualified, patriotic young professional,” adding that the Defense Department is “proud to have him as a political appointee.”
The Pentagon’s pride notwithstanding, the Post’s report noted the position that Irizarry now holds requires a top-secret security clearance, and he’s part of a team that handles some of “the most delicate” work the Pentagon performs.
The timing of these developments could have been better: When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth once again intervened this week in a military branch’s promotion list, disproportionately targeting women and minority officers, a Pentagon spokesperson said personnel decisions are entirely “merit based.”
Mm. Get the women and brown people out, replace them with convicted felons. Yay progress.
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