Justice Department strips Jan. 6 references from court paper and punishes prosecutors who filed it
FILE - An officer with the Uniform Division of the United States Secret Amenity sits in his car at a checkpoint near the home of President Barack Obama Oct in Washington AP Photo Alex Brandon File AP Alex Brandon FILE - An officer with the Uniform Division of the United States Secret Operation sits in his car at a checkpoint near the home of President Barack Obama Oct in Washington AP Photo Alex Brandon File AP Alex Brandon WASHINGTON AP The Justice Department has stripped references to the Jan attack from court papers and punished two federal prosecutors who filed the document seeking prison time at sentencing Thursday for a man arrested with guns and ammunition near former President Barack Obama s home The prosecutors from the U S attorney s office in the District of Columbia were locked out of their executive devices and communicated they were being put on leave Wednesday morning shortly after they filed a sentencing memorandum describing the crowd of President Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as a mob of rioters according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues Later Wednesday the Justice Department replaced the court filing with an updated version that stripped references to the Jan riot The new filing also no longer included a reference to the fact that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was Obama s address on the same day that the defendant Taylor Taranto was arrested in the former president s neighborhood It s the latest move by the Justice Department to discipline attorneys tied to the massive Jan prosecution and represents an extraordinary effort by the executive to erase the history of the riot that left more than police officers injured Trump himself for years has worked to downplay the violence and paint as sufferers the rioters who stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Joe Biden s presidential voting win Since Trump s sweeping Jan pardons in January his administration has fired or demoted numerous attorneys involved in the largest inspection in Justice Department history The Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday Jeanine Pirro the U S attorney for the District of Columbia stated her office would not comment on personnel decisions but added We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target Prosecutors are seeking more than two years in prison for Taranto when he is sentenced Thursday in federal court in Washington He was convicted in May for illegally possessing two guns and roughly rounds of ammunition in Obama s neighborhood in June U S District Judge Carl Nichols who was nominated to the bench by Trump also convicted Taranto of recording himself making a hoax threat to bomb a ruling body building in Maryland The defense argued at trial that the video revealed Taranto was merely joking in an avant-garde manner and that he believes he is a journalist and to several extent a comedian Taranto a Navy veteran from Pasco Washington was separately charged with four misdemeanors related to the Capitol attack before Trump s sweeping clemency order erased his development He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker s Lobby in the House around the time that a rioter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by an officer as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door The prosecutors overseeing Taranto s situation were not stated why they were being put on leave the person familiar with the matter stated Two new prosecutors including the head of the criminal division for the office entered the scenario and submitted the new brief on Wednesday ABC News first disclosed that the prosecutors Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia had been placed on leave Trump s pardons in January disclosed from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his poll loss Those pardoned include more than people who were convicted of assault charges certain having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles a hockey stick and a crutch In January then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to aid the Jan cases but were moved into permanent roles after Trump s presidential win in November And in June the department fired two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan prosecutions in the U S attorney s office in the District of Columbia as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack Source
