{"id":148416,"date":"2026-02-28T15:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T15:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148416\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T15:48:08","slug":"pardoned-jan-6-rioter-running-for-queens-assembly-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148416\/","title":{"rendered":"Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter running for Queens Assembly seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Queens Republican who was convicted for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 riots \u2013 and then pardoned by President Donald Trump \u2014 is running for state Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>Phillip S. Grillo, a former district leader,<a href=\"https:\/\/queenseagle.com\/all\/2026\/2\/24\/hrwyozoshegwkhph0cw5aulq767h0u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> filed paperwork to challenge Democratic incumbent Ed Braunstein <\/a>to represent the 26th Assembly district in northeast Queens.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38627628\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/phillip-grillo-convicted-jan-6-122298349.jpg\" alt=\"A Queens Republican who was convicted \u2013 and then pardoned by President Trump -- for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 riots is running for state Assembly.\" class=\"wp-image-38627628\"  \/>Phillip S. Grillo, a Queens Republican who was convicted \u2013 and then pardoned by President Donald Trump \u2014 for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots is running for state Assembly. Facebook<\/p>\n<p>Grillo, 51,  who has called himself \u201cThe Republican Messiah\u201d\u00a0on social media, was spotted illegally entering the Capitol building carrying a megaphone through a broken window near the Senate Wing door on Jan. 6, 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/pr\/new-york-man-found-guilty-felony-obstruction-and-other-charges-actions-during-jan-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the feds said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m here to stop the steal. It\u2019s our F\u2013king House!\u201d he was recorded saying at the time.<\/p>\n<p>He convicted by a federal jury in DC in 2023 for felony obstruction and multiple misdemeanors, but he was one of more than 1,500 who participated in the riots who Trump pardoned.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38627645\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/philip-grillo-seen-images-court-122298823.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of CCTV images of Philip Grillo during the Capitol riot.\" class=\"wp-image-38627645\"  \/>Collage of CCTV images of Philip Grillo during the Capitol riot released by the US Department of Justice.  Baker, Dineen (USADC)<\/p>\n<p>Grillo ran unsuccessfully for office in 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/dec\/07\/jan-6-rioter-george-santos-replacement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">to replace ex-Long Island Rep. George Santos<\/a> after the disgraced Republican was expelled from office.<\/p>\n<p>He won\u2019t be the only Republican in the race.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll have to first compete for the Republican ballot in June\u2019s primary against Robert Speranza, a retired NYPD officer endorsed by the Queens County Republican Party who previously lost three earlier elections for the same seat.<\/p>\n<p>Grillo could not be reached for comment, and Braunstein did not return a message.<\/p>\n<p>Queens GOP Chairman Tony Nunziato told<a href=\"https:\/\/queenseagle.com\/all\/2026\/2\/24\/hrwyozoshegwkhph0cw5aulq767h0u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> the Queens Eagle,<\/a> which first reported Grillo\u2019s Assembly bid, that he welcomes his candidacy. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody has the right to run,\u201d Nunziato said. \u201cGod bless. That\u2019s all I can tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens Republican who was convicted for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 riots \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9334,57,9,24,17566,63,9335,87,26534,122,124,123,5285,58],"class_list":["post-148416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-capitol-riot","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-assembly","tag-nyc","tag-pardons","tag-politics","tag-primaries","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-republican-party","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}