Two Department of Justice prosecutors were put on leave Wednesday for accurately describing January 6 as “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters.”
Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were prosecuting a separate case involving Capitol insurrectionist Taylor Taranto, who was pardoned by President Trump for his participation in the 2021 riots. Taranto faced separate convictions for being found outside former President Obama’s old home in 2023 with two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a machete.
Valdivia and White only briefly mentioned Taranto’s January 6 involvement in their sentencing memorandum:
On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election … Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building. After the riot, Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021…
The two prosecutors were furloughed due to the government shutdown, and told they would be placed on administrative leave when the shutdown ends. They were also locked out of their offices, making them the latest federal employees to be punished for refusing to capitulate to President Trump’s narratives surrounding January 6.
The GOP seems to be allergic to acknowledging that January 6 was as violent, if not more, than any leftist “mob” they’ve spent the last five years fearmongering about. Thousands of people broke into the Capitol building with the intention of harming elected officials so that they could wrongfully install Trump as president. Multiple people died on that day, including rioter Ashley Babbitt, and three officers died in the aftermath.
“If you work for the Trump/Bondi Justice Department and tell the truth, you will be fired,” one X user wrote Wednesday. “Federal judges should take note.”
The post Trump DOJ Punishes Prosecutors for Accurately Describing January 6 appeared first on New Republic.
