WASHINGTON — A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots has been charged after allegedly threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the top Democratic leader in the House.
Christopher Moynihan, 34, was arrested on Sunday after allegedly sending text messages to an associate with plans to attack Jeffries during an event in New York City the following day. Moynihan now faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat, according to CBS News, which first reported on the arrest.
“Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” Moynihan wrote in the text messages, according to the criminal complaint. “Even if I am hated he must be eliminated. I will kill him for the future.”
The messages indicate Moynihan wanted to harm Jeffries while he was appearing at an event at the Economic Club of New York in Manhattan on Monday.
Jeffries responded to the arrest, commending local law enforcement for their “swift and decisive action” to apprehend Moynihan before the event occurred. The top Democrat, in the same statement, went on to blame the incident on Trump’s blanket pardons earlier this year of every rioter charged in connection with the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 attempting to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Trump issued the pardons on his first day in office earlier this year.
“Since the blanket pardon that occurred earlier this year, many of the criminals released have committed additional crimes throughout the country,” Jeffries said in a statement. “Unfortunately, our brave men and women in law enforcement are being forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned.”
Moynihan is believed to be the only pardoned Jan. 6 rioter that has been arrested a second time for threatening to attack an elected official. However, several of the other defendants have been charged with other crimes since being pardoned in January.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., denounced the planned attacks on Tuesday, but stopped short of saying whether he believed the blanket pardons issued by Trump were a mistake and should have been more carefully evaluated.
“Anybody who threatens political violence against elected officials or anyone else, should be having the full weight and measure of the Department of Justice on their head,” Johnson said. “I trust that will happen. I hope it will. We are intellectually consistent about that.”
But Johnson went on to suggest that Democrats and those on the political left are far more likely to commit violence against those they disagree with.
“This is the left in almost every case, that is advancing this, and not the right,” Johnson said. “So let’s not make it a partisan issue. You don’t want me to go there. We’re just going to say anybody, any deranged individual — this has to stop.”
During the Jan. 6 riots, prosecutors say Moynihan was among the first to break into the Capitol complex and breach the Senate chamber. While inside, he dug through a notebook on top of a chamber desk.
Moynihan was later sentenced to 21 months in prison before being pardoned.
Moynihan is being held in the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.