A man pardoned by President Donald Trump after taking part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot was arrested over the weekend for allegedly threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Christopher Moynihan, 34, was taken into custody on Sunday after he wrote in a text message that he was planning to “eliminate” Jeffries at an event in New York City on Monday, according to court documents, CBS News reported. Jeffries, who represents New York’s 8th Congressional District, spoke at the Economic Club of New York on Monday.
Moynihan, who lives in Clinton, New York, is accused of writing in a text message, “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live.”
“Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated, I will kill him for the future,” Moynihan allegedly added.
New York State Police arrested Moynihan after an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, The New York Post reported. He is charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony. Moynihan is set to make his first court appearance on Thursday in Dutchess County, New York. He will remain in jail “in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, a $30,000 bond, or an $80,000 partially secured bond,” according to the New York State Police.
Jeffries is in the midst of a fierce battle with Republicans over the government shutdown. Last week, Jeffries criticized White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after she said that the Democratic Party is catering to “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.” Jeffries responded to Leavitt’s comments, calling her “sick” and “out of control.” He then argued that the Trump administration was unleashing “unprecedented extremism on the American people.”
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Moynihan was one of the more than 1,500 Capitol riot defendants who received a blanket pardon from President Trump shortly after Trump was sworn into office in January. The New York man was seen in photos walking on the Senate floor on January 6, 2021, after rioters breached the Capitol. Prosecutors alleged that while on the Senate floor, “Moynihan rifled through a notebook on top of a Senator’s desk, saying ‘There’s gotta be something in here we can f***ing use against these scumbags.'” He pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to 21 months in prison in February 2023.
Since Trump pardoned hundreds of J6 defendants, Democrats have condemned the move by pointing to a few instances where people were charged with other alleged crimes in the weeks following their pardons. Earlier this year, a 42-year-old Indiana man who Trump pardoned was shot and killed during a traffic stop after he allegedly resisted arrest and raised “a firearm at police.” Another man who was convicted for his role in the Capitol riot was arrested weeks after his pardon for allegedly breaking into a home in Virginia.
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