The Justice Department does not intend to drop firearms charges against a Seattle man arrested near the Obama family’s D.C. home in 2023 despite dismissing counts last month connected to the Capitol riot, prosecutors said in a filing Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors dismissed pending charges in hundreds of remaining Jan. 6 cases last month following President Donald Trump’s clemency order ending the investigations and pardoning more than 1,200 people convicted in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Among those dismissals was the case against Taylor Taranto, 38, who faced five counts for allegedly unlawfully entering the Capitol as part of the pro-Trump mob.
Last week, Taranto’s attorney asked a judge to dismiss not just the charges related to Jan. 6, but those connected to his arrest in June 2023 as well. She argued since the counts for both cases were included in the same indictment, they should be covered by Trump’s order directing the dismissal of all pending indictments for “conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
“In every pleading filed by the government in this case, they argue – explicitly or implicitly – that the J6 and June 2023 conduct are related,” Taranto’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, wrote.
A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to provide a sworn declaration by noon...
