A Georgia man who was pardoned by President Trump after he pleaded guilty to a criminal charge related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was arrested on Monday and accused of threatening federal judges.
The man, Cleveland Meredith, arrived in Washington on the day of the attack with an assault rifle, a pistol and about 2,500 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said. The riot had ended before he reached the city, but on Jan. 7, 2021, he sent a relative a text message in which he said he intended to “put a bullet” in the head of Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker.
He was arrested at a hotel in Washington that night and later pleaded guilty to an interstate communication of threats charge. He was sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Mr. Meredith, 58, was pardoned when Mr. Trump granted clemency to Jan. 6 defendants last year on the first day of his second term.
Before Mr. Meredith was arrested this week, he had been interviewed by the F.B.I. in November 2024 and August 2025, in part because of social media posts that appeared to be threatening, according to an affidavit from an F.B.I. special agent.
On Oct. 29 in the Northern District of Georgia, Mr. Meredith was charged with one count of interstate threats for a Facebook post he wrote in April that said: “ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!” with a smiling emoji and middle finger emoji.
A lawyer for Mr. Meredith, who lives in Sautee Nacoochee, Ga., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Meredith had been threatening and harassing people and institutions online for at least sixteen months, according to court documents. Last month, he “posted several threatening and concerning messages calling for violence following the midterm elections,” prosecutors said.
According to the affidavit, the F.B.I. received an online tip in April about a threat Mr. Meredith had posted on his public Facebook page. The F.B.I. confirmed that the page belonged to Mr. Meredith after receiving records from Meta, Google and T-Mobile. The page also referred to the Jan. 6 attack and said the owner of the account was a self-identified “J6NUMBER1 Winner of the J6 Challenge,” according to the affidavit.
At least 97 of the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack have been accused of new crimes, according to a study released in June by Lawfare, the nonprofit legal issues publication. Of those cases, 19 involve crimes that were reported after Mr. Trump issued the pardons on Jan. 20, 2025.
The charges range from relatively low-grade offenses like property damage to serious felonies like grand larceny, stalking, planning to assassinate law enforcement officials and prominent politicians, and defrauding government agencies.
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