{"id":298206,"date":"2026-05-18T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/298206\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:25:11","slug":"pardoned-jan-6-rioter-arrested-again-in-texas-extending-brutal-pattern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/298206\/","title":{"rendered":"Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter arrested again in Texas, extending brutal pattern"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a congressional hearing last week, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt complained<\/a> that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee continue to focus on the Jan. 6 attack from five years ago. To hear the Missouri senator tell it, it\u2019s time for the political world to simply move on from the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

Among the many problems<\/a> with Schmitt\u2019s argument is that the relevance of the political violence hasn\u2019t faded at all, especially as many of the rioters who received pardons from Donald Trump run into fresh trouble with the law. Two days before Schmitt\u2019s complaint, Law & Crime reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A Jan. 6 rioter from Texas who was pardoned by President Donald Trump and claimed he had \u201ccompletely changed\u201d since the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack was arrested Sunday and charged with deadly conduct after allegedly threatening a churchgoer with a gun.<\/p>\n

Ryan Nichols, 36, is accused of displaying and grabbing the weapon, a pistol, while threatening and confronting a man over a \u201cprior disagreement\u201d in the parking lot of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Harleton, according to local police officials.<\/p>\n

If Nichols\u2019 name sounds at all familiar, it might be because the Texan recently announced plans to run for Congress as a Republican, though he\u00a0withdrew from the race\u00a0soon after.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the same man who pleaded guilty<\/a> in 2023 to crimes he committed on Jan. 6 telling a judge he was \u201cvery sorry\u201d for the \u201cbad choice\u201d that he made in early 2021. Nichols further claimed that he had \u201ccompletely changed\u201d in the wake of the attack.<\/p>\n

Three years later, he\u2019s due back in court in early June, where he\u2019ll say whether he intends to plead guilty or not guilty in the wake of his latest arrest.<\/p>\n

Just days before Nichols was taken into custody, law enforcement officials in Florida announced a prostitution, human trafficking and child predator sting, which led to the arrest<\/a> of two more Jan. 6 participants who had received pardons from the incumbent president.<\/p>\n

Two weeks before that, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter reached a plea agreement<\/a> with prosecutors in North Carolina over charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children.<\/p>\n

Those developments come three weeks after a different Jan. 6 rioter who received a presidential pardon was sentenced to four years<\/a> in prison on child pornography charges. Earlier in the month, a different Jan. 6 rioter, who was also rescued by Trump, was sentenced to life in prison<\/a> for molesting two children.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was charged with threatening a police officer<\/a> who served at the Capitol. This came roughly a month after the same man was arrested<\/a> in Minneapolis after destroying an ice sculpture that was outside the state Capitol.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this is just the start of a larger list of insurrectionists who ran into trouble with the law after receiving clemency from Trump.<\/p>\n

In February, for example, a different pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted in Florida<\/a> of child molestation and exposing himself to children. (The man, Andrew Paul Johnson, attempted to bribe one of his victims by saying the administration would send him money as part of restitution for those who attacked the Capitol.)<\/p>\n

One week earlier, another pardoned rioter, Christopher Moynihan, who was arrested after allegedly threatening to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, pleaded guilty<\/a> to one count of aggravated harassment as part of a plea agreement.<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

Last fall, Robert Keith Packer, a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal best known for wearing a \u201cCamp Auschwitz\u201d sweatshirt inside the Capitol, was arrested in a dog bite incident<\/a>. That came on the heels of another pardoned Jan. 6 criminal being convicted<\/a> on child pornography charges. Two weeks earlier, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted of plotting to kill FBI agents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They have plenty of company. Zachary Jordan Alam<\/a>, months after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was convicted<\/a> in connection with a home invasion. Andrew Taake<\/a>, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, pleaded guilty<\/a> to soliciting a minor. Emily Hernandez<\/a>, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for driving while drunk and killing a passenger in another car.<\/p>\n

Last fall, a report in The New York Times<\/a> noted a variety of other examples, including a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal who was arrested again<\/a> in connection with a string of alleged thefts of industrial copper in California, and a Jan. 6 participant who was fatally shot by a sheriff\u2019s deputy in Indiana<\/a> after allegedly resisting arrest during a traffic stop, which occurred shortly after he received a presidential pardon.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, this growing list doesn\u2019t include John Banuelos, a Jan. 6 rioter who was arrested in October on kidnapping and sexual assault charges<\/a>. Banuelos wasn\u2019t pardoned, but he saw his Jan. 6 criminal case dropped by the Justice Department the day after Trump\u2019s second inauguration.<\/p>\n

To be sure, when making a list of the worst things the president has done since returning to power, the competition is fierce, but his decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, including violent felons, is near the top. But the fact that so many of these recipients continue to run into legal trouble makes Trump\u2019s move look even worse.<\/p>\n

In light of the astonishing number of insurrectionists<\/a> who have either been accused of or convicted of crimes after receiving a presidential pardon, the editorial board of the Times recently published a notable opinion piece<\/a> that argued, \u201cThe American public deserves to understand the mayhem that the Jan. 6 pardons have unleashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the circumstances, the appeal was hardly unreasonable.<\/p>\n

This post updates our related earlier coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tLatest Post\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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