As part of the larger effort to rewrite the story of Jan. 6, Republicans have invested time and energy trying to convince the public that the insurrectionist rioters were unarmed. Those claims have long been demonstrably untrue.
NBC News reported last year, for example, on a man named John Emanuel Banuelos, who appeared to have been filmed firing gunshots at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Over the weekend, that same rioter made headlines anew. NBC News also reported:
A Donald Trump supporter who fired off a gun during the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was arrested last month on kidnapping and sexual assault charges, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois. John Banuelos, 40, who is from Utah but whose sister lives in the Chicago area, was arrested … on Oct. 17, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Salt Lake County on Oct. 1 on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.
While Trump pardoned nearly 1,500 people involved in the assault on the Capitol, the criminal case against Banuelos was still ongoing when the president returned to the White House. As such, his Justice Department dropped the case against the rioter the day after Inauguration Day.
As the prosecutors’ new case advances, it’s worth acknowledging the familiarity of these circumstances.
It was, after all, just a few weeks ago when a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was arrested after threatening to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. A month earlier, Robert Keith Packer, a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal best known for wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt inside the Capitol, was arrested in a dog-biting incident.
That came on the heels of another pardoned Jan. 6 criminal getting convicted on child pornography charges. Two weeks earlier, another pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was convicted of plotting to kill FBI agents.
They have plenty of company. Zachary Jordan Alam, months after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was recently convicted in connection with a home invasion. Andrew Taake, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor. Emily Hernandez, weeks after receiving a Jan. 6 pardon, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for driving drunk and killing a passenger in another car.
A recent New York Times report noted a variety of other examples, including Brent Holdridge, a pardoned Jan. 6 criminal who was arrested again in May in connection with a string of alleged thefts of industrial copper; and Matthew W. Huttle, who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in January after he resisted arrest during a traffic stop, shortly after receiving a presidential pardon. At a White House event a few weeks ago, a reporter asked the president for his reaction to a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter threatening to a murder a congressional leader. “You have thousands of people that we’re dealing with and, you know, if one goes haywire…,” Trump said, before changing the subject mid-sentence. The latest tally makes clear that we’re not just talking about “one” person. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and 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."
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