Jan. 6 Rioter Sentenced Today After Trump DOJ Suspends Prosecutors

Topline

Jan. 6 defendant Taylor Taranto will be sentenced for unrelated crimes Thursday after the Trump administration has faced turmoil over how it handles the defendant’s previous involvement with the Jan. 6 riot—the government erased all mentions of Taranto’s participation at the Capitol late Wednesday after suspending prosecutors who decried the attack.

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Taranto, 39, was among the group of Jan. 6 participants whom President Donald Trump pardoned on his first day in office, but the defendant was separately charged and convicted for unrelated crimes.

Taranto was convicted for falsely claiming in 2023 he would “cause a car bomb to drive into the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” and was also found near former President Barack Obama’s home while possessing firearms and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”

In a sentencing memo Wednesday, DOJ prosecutors recommended Taranto be sentenced to 27 months in prison and noted his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack, describing that event as being carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters.”

The two rank-and-file prosecutors who signed that sentencing memo were locked out of their government devices hours later, according to multiple reports, with ABC News reporting they were furloughed and told they would be placed on administrative leave following the end of the government shutdown.

The DOJ has not commented on the reasons for the prosecutors’ suspension, but the government then filed an updated sentencing memo later on Wednesday that removed all references to the Jan. 6 attack.

The original sentencing memo is now described on the court docket as being “entered in error.”

What To Watch For

Taranto will be sentenced at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday. The government is still recommending that he be sentenced to 27 months in prison, along with 36 months of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. The 27-month proposed sentence is at the upper limit of the sentencing guidelines for Taranto’s crimes, which recommend between 21 and 27 months incarceration.

How Did The Sentencing Memo Change?

The original sentencing memo was 14 pages long and noted Taranto “was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building,” before returning home to Washington State, where he “promoted conspiracy theories” related to the Jan. 6 attack. The updated 12-page sentencing memo omitted that paragraph entirely, not making any mention of Taranto’s involvement in the riot and only detailing his crimes in 2023. It still recommends a harsh punishment against the defendant, and describes his crimes as being “part of a broader campaign of intimidation” he’s exhibited “against the federal government and public officials.” The revised memo—which removed the names of the original prosecutors and was signed by different DOJ officials—also deleted a sentence noting Taranto drove to Obama’s neighborhood directly after Trump published the former president’s purported address on social media.

Key Background

Taranto was among more than 1,000 participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building who were charged during Joe Biden’s presidency for their involvement in the riot, only to later receive pardons after Trump took office. At least a dozen of those participants still face other charges and convictions for unrelated crimes, which include domestic violence, child sexual abuse, drunk driving, soliciting a minor, theft and assault. While the Trump administration has allowed many of those separate charges to move forward, the government has opposed continuing cases that involve crimes arising from the Jan. 6 investigation, The Washington Post noted in March. In the case of a defendant who was also charged with possessing drugs and firearms, for instance, the government argued those charges should be dismissed, because they would not have been uncovered had prosecutors not been looking into the defendant because of his involvement with Jan. 6.