Two federal prosecutors have been placed on leave at the direction of the White House after they filed a sentencing memo seeking 27 months in prison for a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter who brought illegal guns and ammunition to former President Barack Obama’s house in 2023.
Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the suspension of the prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, though neither person knew exactly what angered White House officials about the memo.
Taylor Taranto, who was arrested in June 2023 while he was livestreaming video near Obama’s house in Washington, D.C., was found guilty in May after a bench trial of possessing illegal guns. He was also convicted on false information and hoaxes charges related to a video he streamed claiming he was on a “one-way mission” to blow up the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Investigators said they found two guns, a machete and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Taranto’s van when he was arrested. Court records say Taranto repeatedly said he was trying to get a “shot” and that he wanted to get a “good angle on a shot.”
Taranto was among roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants President Donald Trump pardoned on the first day of his second term in office.
Later Wednesday, different prosecutors posted a new sentencing memo that removes all references to the Jan. 6 attacks and also removes a reference to Trump posting Obama’s address on Truth Social, which prosecutors say Taranto saw before going to Obama’s neighborhood.
The prosecutors on his case, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, filed a detailed sentencing memo Tuesday asserting that Taranto’s actions “caused the evacuation of a residential neighborhood and forced law enforcement agents from multiple agencies to respond to his false bomb hoax.”
The memo added, “A 27-month sentence reflects the gravity of Taranto’s conduct, his lack of remorse, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in similar threatening conduct.
The memo describes the Jan. 6 events as “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol. After the riot, Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.” Amid an attempt at rewriting the history of Jan. 6, Trump and his supporters routinely dismiss the idea that a riot occurred that day, despite the video and other evidence. Taranto had posted about appearing outside Obama’s residence the same day in June 2023 that Trump shared a screenshot on social media that included what he said was Obama’s Washington address. Prosecutors said Taranto reposted what Trump had shared and then posted about being outside Obama’s home, writing, “We got these losers surrounded!” The Justice Department declined to comment.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW. Recommended
