{"id":14697,"date":"2025-10-21T15:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-pardoned-jan-6-rioter-arrested-for-allegedly-threatening-to-kill-jeffries\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:17:13","slug":"trump-pardoned-jan-6-rioter-arrested-for-allegedly-threatening-to-kill-jeffries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-pardoned-jan-6-rioter-arrested-for-allegedly-threatening-to-kill-jeffries\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 rioter arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Jeffries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested last week for allegedly threatening to kill House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\n

Christopher Moynihan, who was among a small group of Jan. 6 rioters convicted for breaching the Senate floor and rifling through senators\u2019 desks, was arrested by New York State Police after a \u201cthorough investigation<\/a>,\u201d which authorities say began with an anonymous tip to the FBI.<\/p>\n

Court records reflect<\/a> that the FBI\u2019s tipster told the bureau that on Oct. 17, Moynihan \u201cmade statements regarding the assassination of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries\u201d and that he planned to carry out the attack \u201cin a few days,\u201d while the Democratic House leader was in New York. The person told the FBI that Moynihan described the motivation for the plot as \u201cthe future\u201d and voiced concern that the man given clemency by Trump had been abusing drugs and expressing increasing \u201chomicidal ideations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators also indicated they had reason to believe Moynihan owned or had access to a firearm. Moynihan\u2019s Oct. 19 arrest was first reported by CBS News<\/a>. He faces a charge of making a terroristic threat against a member of Congress. Jeffries praised state and federal authorities<\/a> for apprehending Moynihan and lamented Trump\u2019s blanket pardon.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, our brave men and women in law enforcement are being forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned,\u201d Jeffries said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Moynihan was part of a group of Trump supporters who entered the Capitol early Jan. 6, reaching the Senate chamber just minutes after lawmakers evacuated. Charging documents from that case<\/a> say Moynihan could be seen on video reviewing papers on senators\u2019 desks and saying, \u201cThere\u2019s got to be something we can use against these fucking scumbags.\u201d He then stood on the Senate dais \u2014 where then-Vice President Mike Pence had stood just minutes earlier \u2014 alongside \u201cQAnon Shaman\u201d Jacob Chansley and others who formed the early vanguard of the Jan. 6 mob.<\/p>\n

Moynihan was convicted in 2022 at a bench trial by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who later sentenced him to 21 months in prison for obstructing Congress\u2019 proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

Cooper released him from prison a year into his sentence after the Supreme Court agreed to review questions about the way obstruction charges had been applied to those who attacked the Capitol. In reaching the decision,Cooper emphasized<\/a> that he believed Moynihan \u201cwould not present a danger to the community\u201d upon release.<\/p>\n

After Trump\u2019s inauguration, Moynihan\u2019s case was dismissed altogether, following Trump\u2019s grant of clemency to those who participated in the Jan. 6 riot.<\/p>\n

Moynihan is one of a growing list of Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged with, convicted of, or sentenced for other crimes since Trump ended the nationwide manhunt. One of them, Edward Kelley, was sentenced to life in prison<\/a> earlier this year for attempting to carry out an assassination plot against law enforcement officials who investigated him over his role in the riot.<\/p>\n

Others have faced burglary, possession of child pornography or firearms-related charges. But Moynihan is the first Jan. 6 defendant accused of explicitly targeting a member of Congress for violence after Trump\u2019s pardon.<\/p>\n

Moynihan\u2018s arrest is also notable because it arrives in the midst of a national debate over political violence, particularly in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Trump and his allies have repeatedly ascribed political violence exclusively to left-wing extremists, and the president has worked in recent weeks to push conspiracy theories that the Jan. 6 attack was instigated by the FBI or other government actors, rather than supporters who believed that the 2020 election was stolen.<\/p>\n

Asked about the threat against Jeffries, Speaker Mike Johnson called it \u201cterrible\u201d but reiterated that \u201cThe violence on the left is far more than the violence on the right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested last week for allegedly threatening to kill House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Christopher Moynihan, who was among a small group of Jan. 6 rioters convicted for breaching the Senate floor and rifling through senators\u2019 desks, was arrested by New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}