An upstate New York man, pardoned by President Trump after participating in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was charged last week with a new crime: threatening to assassinate Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, during an event in New York.
The man, Christopher P. Moynihan, 34, sent text messages to an unknown associate on Friday threatening Mr. Jeffries’ life, according to a criminal complaint filed by local prosecutors in Dutchess County, New York.
“Hakeem Jeffries will be speaking in a few days in New York. I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” Mr. Moynihan said in the complaint. “Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated. I will kill him for the future.”
Mr. Jeffries appeared Monday for a speech at the Economic Club of New York in Manhattan. In a statement released Tuesday, he thanked state and federal law enforcement for apprehending Mr. Moynihan.
“Since the general pardon granted earlier this year, many released criminals have committed new crimes across the country,” Mr. Jeffries said. “Unfortunately, our brave law enforcement men and women are forced to spend their time protecting our communities from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned. »
While other pardoned rioters have been re-arrested since the presidential pardon was granted, Mr. Moynihan appears to be the only one so far to have been re-indicted for committing an offense against an elected official.
Mr. Moynihan, who lives in Clinton, N.Y., about 50 miles east of Syracuse, has a long history of drug abuse and petty crime, according to court documents. He worked several jobs, including plumbing, carpentry and catering, according to newspapers.
On Jan. 6, prosecutors say, he was among the first group of rioters to break into the Capitol, breaking through police lines and eventually entering the Senate chamber. There, according to court documents, he searched a notebook on a senator’s desk.
In February 2023, Mr. Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison after being convicted in federal district court in Washington on one count of obstructing a congressional proceeding. He also pleaded guilty to a series of offenses related to the riot.
But Mr. Moynihan was ultimately pardoned by Mr. Trump as part of the president’s clemency deal to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
New York State Police said in a statement over the weekend that Mr. Moynihan was being held in Dutchess County Jail in lieu of bail and was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. Prosecutors accused him of making terrorist threats against Mr. Jeffries.
Experts on political violence have long expressed concerns that Mr. Trump’s clemency for the Jan. 6 rioters, including those who attacked police officers, could lead to further politically charged violence.
Since his first term, Mr. Trump has expunged the convictions and sentences of his allies who continue to face legal problems after their release from prison.
Brent Holdridge, a California man sentenced to 60 days in prison for a crime committed on January 6, was arrested again in May for a series of alleged industrial copper thefts.
Zachary Alam, who was sentenced to eight years in prison by a federal judge who called him “by far the loudest, most combative and most violent of the rioters,” was also indicted again in May, accused of breaking into a home outside Richmond, Virginia.
Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys party, was briefly arrested in February on assault charges after getting into a scuffle with a protester during a bizarre press conference he held outside the Capitol.
And Matthew W. Huttle, an Indiana carpenter who was sentenced to six months in prison in connection with Jan. 6, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in January after resisting arrest during a traffic stop.
