The events of Jan. 6, 2021, are now almost five years in the past, but the turmoil they continue to cause for the Justice Department and its prosecutors was on clear display again Thursday in a federal courtroom in Washington.
Two federal prosecutors whom the Justice Department abruptly placed on leave Wednesday appeared at a sentencing hearing for Taylor Taranto, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter who was convicted on separate charges for unrelated threats and firearm crimes. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White wereplaced on leave hours after describing Jan. 6 in a sentencing memo as an attack by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters.”
The pair looked on from the gallery as the chief of the criminal section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., Jonathan Hornok, and another prosecutor, Travis Wolf, took their places.
Near the outset of the hourlong sentencing hearing for Taranto, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols offered an unusual tribute to the recently suspended prosecutors, who were joined by several colleagues offering support.
Nichols, a Trump appointee, did not press Hornok or Wolf on the reason for the last-minute shake-up. However, the judge praised the lawyers who were shunted aside, saying they had “upheld the highest standards of professionalism.”
“In my view, both Mr. Valdivia and Mr. White did a truly excellent job in this case,” the judge added.
It’s still not clear exactly what led to the ouster of Valdivia and White, but it appears to stem from language in a 14-page brief they submitted Tuesday. It offered a brief but graphic description of the events of Jan. 6, noting how “a mob of rioters” attacked the Capitol to dispute the results of the 2020 presidential election.
On his first day back in office in January, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of those charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot. However, Taranto still faced other charges related to events in June 2023 when he triggered a massive police response and partial evacuation of D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood by posting a rambling livestream where he suggested he was driving through the area in a van fitted with explosives and capable of driving itself.
The sentencing memo Valdivia and White filed also noted that Taranto appeared to zero in on a home belonging to former President Barack Obama after Trump published “the purported address” of Obama’s home on Truth Social. Taranto re-posted that address and ranted on video and on Telegram about “tunnels” he could use to reach the homes of Obama and others.
Taranto was arrested that afternoon after a brief chase by the Secret Service. Two pistols and ammunition were found in Taranto’s van, although no explosives were found.
Senior officials at the U.S. Attorney’s office apparently tried to memory hole the initial sentencing filing by persuading a court clerk to block online access to it. A notation posted online said it was filed in error. The document and the docket entry for it are now missing from the public docket, although journalists downloaded the filing before it became inaccessible.
On Wednesday evening, Hornok and Wolf filed a revised sentencing memo that removed all references to the attack on the Capitol and to Trump’s role in posting Obama’s address.
“Not entirely clear to me how that first brief was sealed,” Nichols said Thursday, noting that he had not authorized its removal. The judge said he’d read both prosecution briefs and that if prosecutors want to keep the initial sentencing memo under wraps they will need to file a motion to seal it or strike it. “It’s going to have to justify that,” the judge warned.
Validivia and White declined to comment as they left the courthouse. Hornok referred questions to a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Asked about the tumult at a press conference earlier Thursday, Pirro said, “I think the papers speak for themselves and what goes on in this office is not something I’m going to comment on to the press.”
Amid the other drama Thursday, Taranto’s sentence itself seemed like something of an afterthought. He wasn’t present in the courtroom, but joined remotely from his home in Washington state after being released from pretrial detention earlier this year. His two defense attorneys also appeared by video. Nichols seemed to take it in stride as a cat belonging to one of the defense lawyers crossed through the video twice.
At a bench trial in May, Nichols found Taranto guilty on the hoax and firearm-related charges, rejecting defense arguments that his online diatribes were protected First Amendment speech.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for between 21 and 27 months in prison.
Both the old prosecutors and the new ones urged Nichols to impose a 27-month sentence, which would likely have required Taranto to serve a few additional days in prison beyond the 22 months he already spent in pretrial detention.
“This triggered a significant law enforcement response,” Wolf told the judge Thursday, including 40 to 50 FBI agents and a bomb squad.
However, defense attorney Carmen Hernandez said Taranto was only facing charges over the 2023 incident because he turned down an offer last year to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot. “This is a unique case,” she said, calling his comments “dark humor” and “satirical.”
Taranto’s defense also argued unsuccessfully earlier in the case that Trump’s pardon of Jan. 6 participants should apply to the hoax and gun-related offenses Taranto was charged with.
Taranto addressed the court briefly Thursday, offering about two minutes of hard-to-follow comments about the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and claims of “election fraud” in 2020.
“Foundational fraud is the topic,” Taranto said.
Nichols said the sentence at the low end of the recommended range was appropriate because Taranto’s conduct was “serious,” but “was far from egregious or the most serious I’ve seen.” The judge also imposed a three-year term of supervised release.
Taranto indicated during the hearing that he plans to appeal his convictions.
Faith Wardwell contributed to this report.
