Justice Department strips Jan. 6 references from court paper and
punishes prosecutors who filed it
[October 31, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
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.
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An officer with the Uniform Division of the United States Secret
Service sits in his car at a checkpoint near the home of President
Barack Obama, Oct. 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon,
File)
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.
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