In the ongoing litigation fallout from President Donald Trump’s blanket pardon for Jan. 6 defendants, a federal judge reached a conclusion that might seem obvious but still needed stating: The pardon doesn’t cover Maryland gun possession.
Both the defendant and the Trump Justice Department argued otherwise. But the judge said Elias Nick Costianes’ firearms conviction in Maryland is unrelated to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar rejected the argument that it’s related because the search warrant leading to the evidence at Costianes’ Maryland home in February 2021 stemmed from his presence at the Capitol a month prior. The Maryland judge acknowledged the evidence likely wouldn’t have been recovered if Costianes hadn’t been at the Capitol, but the judge maintained that the plain language of the pardon still doesn’t stretch that far.
As a reminder, Trump’s pardon said it applies to convictions for “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Bredar, an Obama appointee, reasoned the pardon doesn’t apply to investigations related to Jan. 6 but to offenses, as the pardon’s text states. The judge noted the pardon could’ve been drafted more broadly but wasn’t. That raises the reality that Trump could issue a new pardon covering the Maryland case. In fact, in all these cases asking courts to interpret how far the pardon goes, the president could, with the stroke of a pen, get the relief his administration is seeking in court. But for now, this latest ruling stands as the administration’s latest loss on the subject. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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