Taylor Taranto, 37, of Washington, state along with the Ceska 9mm CZ Scorpion E3 (top) and a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield (bottom) found in his possession near former President Barack Obama's home on June 29, 2023 (Image: Department of Justice / WUSA)
One pardoned January 6 defendant has attracted the attention of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice after he was seen in the vicinity of a high-ranking congressional Democrat's home.
Politico reported Thursday that 37 year-old Taylor Taranto, who received a pardon from Trump on the first day of his second term along with the other roughly 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, was recently caught wandering the neighborhood of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to have Taranto incarcerated.
Nichols sentenced Taranto in October of this year to time served plus 36 months of probation after he issued a bomb threat and carried weapons in Washington D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood in 2023, where former President Barack Obama lives. Taranto was seen in the neighborhood just one day after Trump posted the Obama family's address on his Truth Social account.
According to Politico, assistant U.S. attorney Travis Wolf said jailing Taranto was necessary due to the defendants "acute mental health concerns" and "alarming social media posts, including one from the parking lot of the Pentagon." Wold told Nichols that he feared Taranto was "on the path" to committing crimes similar to his 2023 offense.
Nichols — who was appointed by Trump in 2019 — didn't order Taranto back to prison, but said he would issue a ruling in the coming weeks. Taranto's probation officer asked for increased monitoring of the defendant's drug use and psychiatric treatment in lieu of jail time, and his attorney asked for her client to be allowed to return to his home in Washington state for the holiday season.
Taranto reportedly agreed to voluntarily drive back to his home state by 12 PM on Friday, and Judge Nichols ordered him to not return to Washington D.C. until after the start of the new year. Taranto was also ordered to attend a probation hearing in Washington state next Wednesday, and Judge Nichols said he was "absolutely prepared" to jail him if he didn't follow the court's orders.
The Trump administration previously suspended two DOJ prosecutors who attempted to sentence Taranto in October. Former Department of Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor — who worked in Trump's first administration — accused the president of "coddling assassins."
Click here to read Politico's full article.