A federal judge has sentenced a man to time served for making a hoax threat near the D.C. residence of former President Barack Obama two years ago, prompting a massive law enforcement response that included a bomb squad and sniffer dogs.
Taylor Taranto, of Pasco, Wash., spent 22 months in the troubled D.C. jail facility while he waited for trial on allegations that he suggested his van was rigged with explosives. Authorities never found any such devices, though they did recover firearms and a machete.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols noted that Taranto had no criminal history — partly because the Justice Department had previously moved to dismiss several charges related to Taranto's participation in the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
President Trump granted clemency to Taranto and virtually every Jan. 6 defendant on the first day he returned to the White House this year.
But the storming of the Capitol and the Justice Department response to it continue to reverberate, especially within the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington.
Trump and his cabinet officials are trying to rewrite the history of that day, in part by firing or forcing out law enforcement officials who investigated cases related to the riot.
This week the Justice Department sidelined two veteran prosecutors who had worked on the Taranto case and took the rare step of withdrawing a sentencing memo they had filed.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro declined to comment on any personnel decisions but in a statement said "we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously."
"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," Pirro said in the statement.
Original sentencing memo sealed, replaced
The original sentencing memo in Taranto's case detailed how a "mob of rioters" attacked the seat of government as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 election.
It also mentioned that Taranto headed in the direction of Obama's home after Trump reposted an address of a location on social media.
A replacement sentencing memo, filed by a new pair of DOJ lawyers, scrubbed both of those references. The electronic court docket last night listed the original memo as sealed.
Judge Nichols said it was "not entirely clear" how that memo had come to be sealed and that he intended to release it unless the DOJ could justify keeping it hidden.
The judge did not press the new attorneys for details about the rare, last-minute personnel switch. But he went out of his way to praise the sidelined prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White.
"I just want to express my view that they did a commendable and excellent job in this case," Judge Nichols said. "They also held the highest standards of professionalism."
At a press conference on a D.C. crime issue, Pirro declined to answer whether she ordered the original sentencing memo in the Taranto case to be revoked.
"I think the papers speak for themselves and what goes on in this office is not something I'm going to comment on to the press," Pirro said.
Valdivia and White listened on from the audience in the sixth floor courtroom, surrounded by some of the lawyers who had supervised hundreds of Capitol riot cases — only to be fired or forced out of the Justice Department this year.
Taranto, a Navy veteran with two children, has since returned home to Washington state. He will be required to serve three years of supervised release, undergo a mental health assessment, and to avoid firearms and controlled substances.
"There's nothing that he did, in fact, that was violent," said defense attorney Carmen Hernandez. "The firearms were in a locked compartment in a van."
Taranto signaled he would appeal in the coming weeks. He used his brief time before the judge to address what he called "deeply troubling issues concerning our founding, our history" and "election fraud for the 2020 election."
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