WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has stripped references to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack from court papers and punished two federal prosecutors who filed the document seeking prison time at sentencing Thursday for a man arrested with guns and ammunition near former President Barack Obama’s home.
The prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia were locked out of their government devices and told they were being put on leave Wednesday morning shortly after they filed a sentencing memorandum describing the crowd of President Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters," according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.
Later Wednesday, the Justice Department replaced the court filing with an updated version that stripped references to the Jan. 6 riot. The new filing also no longer included a reference to the fact that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was Obama's address on the same day that the defendant, Taylor Taranto, was arrested in the former president's neighborhood.
It’s the latest move by the Justice Department to discipline attorneys tied to the massive Jan. 6 prosecution and represents an extraordinary effort by the government to erase the history of the riot that left more than 100 police officers injured.
Trump himself for years has worked to downplay the violence and paint as victims the rioters who stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory. Since Trump's sweeping Jan. 6 pardons in January, his administration has fired or demoted numerous attorneys involved in the largest investigation in Justice Department history.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office would not comment on personnel decisions, but added: "We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”
Judge praises punished prosecutors
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, praised the two prosecutors who were replaced on the case before he sentenced Taranto to the time he already has served in jail. Nichols said the prosecutors, Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia, did a “truly excellent job” and “upheld the highest standards of professionalism.” But neither the judge nor the new prosecutors addressed any reason for placing them on leave.
The judge also said he intends to unseal prosecutors' original sentencing memo unless they can justify in writing why it shouldn't be made public again.
Taranto served over 22 months in pretrial detention before he was released after the trial. Nichols sentenced him to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months. He was convicted in May for illegally possessing two guns and roughly 500 rounds of ammunition in Obama's neighborhood in June 2023. Nichols also convicted Taranto of recording himself making a hoax threat to bomb a government building in Maryland.
Riot defendant rejected plea deal
The defense argued at trial that the video showed Taranto was merely joking in an “avant-garde” manner, and that he believes he is a “journalist and, to some extent, a comedian.” Defense attorney Carmen Hernandez said prosecutors charged him with a felony in the hoax case only after he rejected their offer to resolve the Jan. 6 charges with a guilty plea.
Hernandez said Taranto believed he was expressing his First Amendment-protected rights to free speech when he was livestreaming his remarks about the government building in Maryland.
“He believed he was expressing his dark sense of humor,” she added.
Taranto, a Navy veteran from Pasco, Washington, was separately charged with four misdemeanors related to the Capitol attack before Trump's sweeping clemency order erased his case. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby in the House around the time that a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by an officer as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.
No reason given for the punishment
The prosecutors overseeing Taranto's case were not told why they were being put on leave, the person familiar with the matter said. Two new prosecutors, including the office's head of the criminal division, Jonthan Hornok, entered the case and submitted the new brief on Wednesday. ABC News first reported that the prosecutors had been placed on leave.
After the sentencing, Hornock declined to explain why his office scrubbed any mention of Jan. 6 from its memo.
Trump's pardons in January released from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch.
In January, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases, but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s presidential win in November.
And in June, the department fired two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack.