Former Capitol riot defendant is convicted of gun charges stemming from
his arrest near Obama's home
[May 21, 2025]
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A military veteran whose Capitol riot case was erased
by a presidential proclamation was convicted Tuesday of charges that he
illegally possessed guns and ammunition in his van when he was arrested
near President Barack Obama’s home in the nation's capital.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also convicted Taylor Taranto of
recording himself making a hoax threat to bomb a government building in
Maryland. The judge decided the case without a jury after a bench trial
that started last week in Washington, D.C.
Taranto was arrested in Obama’s neighborhood on the same day in June
2023 that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was the former
president’s address. Investigators said they found two guns, roughly 500
rounds of ammunition and a machete in Taranto’s van.
Taranto was livestreaming video on YouTube in which he said he was
looking for “entrance points” to underground tunnels and wanted to get a
“good angle on a shot,” according to prosecutors. He reposted Trump’s
message about Obama’s home address and wrote: “We got these losers
surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s.” He was referring to
John Podesta, who chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Democratic presidential
campaign.
Taranto wasn't charged with threatening Obama or Podesta. But the judge
convicted him of making a hoax bomb threat directed at the Gaithersburg,
Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is
part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Taranto’s lawyers said he didn’t have any bomb-making material and
wasn’t near the institute when he made those statements on a
livestreamed video. During the trial’s opening statements, defense
attorney Pleasant Brodnax said the video shows Taranto was merely joking
in an “avant-garde” manner.
[to top of second column]
|
Support of President Donald Trump climb the West Wall of the the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis
Magana, file)
“He believes he is a journalist and, to some extent, a comedian,”
Broadnax said.
But the judge concluded that a reasonable, objective observer might
have believed Taranto's statements on the video. While some viewers
may have thought his words were of a "madcap nature," others could
have interpreted them as coming from “an unbalanced narrator willing
to follow through on outlandish claims,” Nichols said.
Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, didn’t immediately schedule a
sentencing hearing for Taranto. He has been jailed for nearly two
years since his arrest because a judge concluded that he poses a
danger to the public.
After reading his verdict from the bench, the judge said he would
entertain a request by defense attorney Carmen Hernandez to release
Taranto from custody until his sentencing. Nichols said he intends
to rule on that request later this week.
Taranto, a Navy veteran from Pasco, Washington, is one of only a few
people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol who
remained jailed after President Donald Trump 's sweeping act on
clemency in January. Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences
or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of the more than 1,500
people charged with crimes in the riot.
Before Trump’s pardons, Taranto also was charged with four
misdemeanors related to the Jan. 6 attack. Prosecutors said he
joined the crush of rioters who breached the building. He was
captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby around the
time that a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by an officer
while she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded
door.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
