'Zero clue who he was': Senator's office responds to photo of him with notorious J6 rioter

The office of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is responding to a wave of criticism on social media after the senator was seen in a photograph posing with an infamous Jan. 6 rioter.

NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach posted an image that showed Fetterman posing with a smile and a thumbs up alongside Adam Christian Johnson, a Florida man who pleaded guilty to Capitol riot offenses and was famously photographed stealing the lectern of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

The senator's office explained the photo by saying Fetterman didn't know the man.

"John had absolutely zero clue who he was," an unnamed spokesperson from Fetterman's office told Dreisbach. "He took several dozens of photos with people today alone."

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Fetterman has recently drawn the ire of some fellow Democrats for traveling to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump during the presidential transition, and for being one of a handful of Democrats who helped Republicans pass a bill mandating the detention of immigrants accused of crimes, which some experts have warned could undermine civil liberties and the separation of powers.

The photo comes two years after a similar incident in which progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posed for a photo with anti-LGBTQ activist Chaya Raichik, noted for her "Libs of TikTok" ambush account. Things grew tense after Ocasio-Cortez realized she had been tricked into being photographed with Raichik.

Trump kicked off the first day of his presidency with a blanket amnesty for around 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack, including those convicted by juries of violent assaults on police officers, and even commutations for paramilitary leaders imprisoned for seditious conspiracy.

See the photo in question below or at this link.