President Donald Trump’s blanket Jan. 6 clemency has raised questions about how far it applies. According to the Trump Justice Department, the latest answer is that it covers Florida convictions for possessing unregistered short-barrel firearms and unregistered explosive grenades, improper storage of explosive grenades and retention of classified information.
The DOJ staked out this position in the case of Jeremy Brown. By way of background, according to the federal government’s 2023 press release touting Brown’s seven-year prison sentence, a jury found him guilty at trial after the FBI searched his Tampa, Florida, residence in September 2021.
During the search, agents found an unregistered AR-15-style rifle, modified to have a 10” barrel, in Brown’s bedroom. Agents also found a sawed-off shotgun, also unregistered, on a couch inside of Brown’s recreational vehicle (RV), which was parked near his home. Inside a briefcase next to the shotgun, agents found a classified Trip Report that Brown had authored shortly before he retired from the U.S. Special Forces. Inside the bedroom of that same RV, agents found an ammunition vest containing two M-67 fragmentation grenades hidden in the pockets. U.S. Army records confirmed that the grenades had originally been in the possession of the U.S. Army.
An FBI agent quoted in the release said: “The communities we serve can be assured by investigations such as this that the FBI and its law enforcement partners are working diligently and tirelessly to support the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the United States Constitution.”
Fast-forward to Tuesday, when the DOJ said in a court filing: “Based on consultation with Department of Justice leadership, it is the position of the United States that the offenses of conviction in this case are intended to be covered by this Pardon.”
So how are the Florida-found weapons and such “related,” exactly?
Recall that Trump’s blanket pardon, issued right after he took office last month, said it was for “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
So how are the Florida-found weapons and such “related,” exactly?
The DOJ filing didn’t explain. But it could be understood by looking at the background of the case, as laid out in a brief challenging Brown’s appeal, filed by federal prosecutors last month before Trump took office (in which they referred to the events of Jan. 6 as “domestic terrorism”):
On January 6, 2021, a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of the presidential election results. Members of the Oath Keepers were among those who forcibly entered the Capitol. Jeremy Brown traveled to Washington, D.C., with members of the Oath Keepers and a cache of weapons and trespassed at the Capitol on January 6 wearing military gear. While investigating the domestic terrorism that occurred that day, federal agents obtained a search warrant from a magistrate judge in the District of Columbia authorizing the search of Brown’s home, RV, and trailer, located in the Middle District of Florida. During the ensuing search, agents found a short-barreled shotgun, a short-barreled rifle, a vest holding two hand grenades, and classified documents.
So, the implication is that the Florida convictions are “related” to the events of Jan. 6 because the search warrant broadly stemmed from Jan. 6. That is, were it not for Jan. 6, the Florida case would not have arisen.
The implication is that the Florida convictions are “related” to the events of Jan. 6 because the search warrant broadly stemmed from Jan. 6. Likewise, in another case I previously highlighted in the Trump pardon fallout, federal prosecutors sided with Dan Edwin Wilson on Tuesday, telling a court that his firearm convictions that resulted from a Kentucky search warrant are also covered by Trump’s clemency. The Wilson filing, from the office of headline-making interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin in the District of Columbia, noted that the government had previously indicated that the Jan. 6 pardon didn’t cover Wilson’s firearm convictions. But Martin’s office wrote that the government “has received further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon. Under these circumstances, the Presidential Pardon includes a pardon for the firearm convictions to which the defendant pled, similar to other defendants in which the government has made comparable motions.” One of the similar defendants cited was Brown in Florida. Thus, the Justice Department is building a body of precedent representing a broad application of Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency to forgive convictions for weapons recovered across the country. 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 Donald Trump’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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