A day after the Justice Department withdrew a sentencing memorandum outlining the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol as carried out by “thousands of people who make up a mob of rioters,” the convicted Jan. 6 participant charged in the case is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Federal prosecutors Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were informed Wednesday that they would be placed on leave after submitting the memo in the case of Taylor Taranto, who was convicted of firearms and threats charges related to a Arrest in June 2023 near former President Barack Obama’s home, after Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“On January 6, 2021, thousands of people forming a mob of rioters attacked the United States Capitol as a joint session of Congress was convening to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election,” prosecutors’ sentencing memo said. “Taranto was charged with participating in the riot in Washington, DC, by entering the US Capitol building.”
The memo also details how Taranto traveled to former President Obama’s home alone after a Truth Social post by then-former President Trump included Obama’s speech.
It is unclear whether Valdivia or White were given a reason for their suspensions, although the moves come after months of turmoil in the Washington, D.C., U.S. attorney’s office, where multiple career prosecutors clashed. dismissals or demotions related to his involvement in the prosecution of the more than 1,500 defendants in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
A photo of Taylor Taranto from a detention memo released by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
US District Court
On Wednesday night, the Justice Department, in a highly unusual move, withdrew the original sentencing memo and replaced it with one in which references to January 6 and Trump’s Truth social narrative They were eliminated.
Taranto was scheduled to appear at Thursday’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump-appointed judge who described the Jan. 6 attack in serious terms.
Following Trump’s reelection victory in November, Judge Nichols said it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump subsequently granted broad pardons and commutations to all of the Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office.
