Pardoned January 6 rioter pleads guilty to threatening Hakeem Jeffries

A rioter who was pardoned by Donald Trump for the felony he was convicted of in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 has pleaded guilty to a harassment charge over threats to kill the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

Christopher Moynihan, 35, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge in a hearing in Clinton, New York, prosecutors said, and will be sentenced in April. His representative could not immediately be reached.

“Threats against elected officials are not political speech, they are criminal acts that strike at the heart of public safety and our democratic system,” the district attorney for Dutchess county, Anthony Parisi, said in a statement.

Moynihan, of Pleasant Valley, New York, was charged last October after he sent threatening text messages about an appearance Jeffries was scheduled to make in New York City, according to a complaint filed in New York state court in Clinton. Jeffries represents a New York City district in Congress.

“Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live … I will kill him for the future,” the text messages read, according to the complaint.

“These text messages placed the recipient in reasonable fear of the imminent murder and assassination of Hakeem Jeffries by the defendant,” the complaint had said.

Previously, in February 2023, Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison on charges including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony.

He was among more than 1,500 people charged in the insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC by supporters of Trump on 6 January 2021. The attack was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent the official certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the 2020 US presidential election.

Trump pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the Capitol attack when he began his second term last January, in a show of solidarity with supporters who backed his false claim of victory in the 2020 election.

Reuters contributed reporting