Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter charged with threatening to kill Jeffries
A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by President Trump was charged this weekend with threatening to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) at an upcoming event.
New York State Police said they received a tip on Saturday that Christopher Moynihan, 34, sent text messages warning that he planned to kill the New York Democrat during an event in New York City on Monday.
“Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” Moynihan said Friday in the text messages, according to a criminal complaint reported by multiple outlets.
“Even if I am hated he must be eliminated. I will kill him for the future,” Moynihan allegedly added.
Moynihan was arrested and charged this weekend with making a terrorist threat against Jeffries. Jeffries spoke at the Economic Club of New York on Monday.
In a statement on Tuesday, Jeffries thanked state and federal law enforcement for “their swift and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention to carry it out.”
“Since the blanket pardon that occurred earlier this year, many of the criminals released have committed additional crimes throughout the country,” Jeffries added. “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.”
“It is the honor of my life to serve in Congress during these challenging times. Threats of violence will not stop us from showing up, standing up and speaking up for the American people,” Jeffries added.
Moynihan was granted one of the roughly 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional pardons” to rioters who were charged in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In total, 1,583 defendants have been charged. Some 600 of those defendants were accused of resisting and assaulting police officers.
Prosecutors say he was among the first groups of rioters to enter the Capitol and allege that he ultimately participated in breaching the Senate chamber, where he flipped through a notebook on top of a senator’s desk, took out papers and took photos with his cell phone, according to court records. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday denounced the alleged death threat, though he stopped short of condemning Trump’s move to pardon the hundreds of rioters earlier this year.
“I don’t know any of the details of this at all. I don’t know who’s been alleged to have been involved in this,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “I will say that anybody — anybody — who threatens political violence against elected officials or anyone else should have the full weight and measure of the Department of Justice on their head.
“I trust that that will happen — I hope it will,” he added. “We are intellectually consistent about that, obviously.”