President Donald Trump on Friday issued a second pardon to Daniel Edwin Wilson, whom he had previously pardoned for participation in the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but was in prison on a separate gun charge. The action was announced Saturday morning.
Trump also pardoned Suzanne Kaye, who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening FBI agents who wanted to speak to her about her whereabouts on Jan. 6. And, in a case unrelated to Jan. 6, Trump also pardoned Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty last year in a $38 million tax fraud scheme.
The latest pardons underscored the breadth of Trump’s efforts since taking office to clear anyone involved in efforts that he had hoped would lead to the overturn of the 2020 election, which was won by Joe Biden.
Wilson, 50, of Louisville, had pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to five years in prison for his actions at the Capitol.
The Justice Department during the Biden administration released a series of messages Wilson made on Jan. 6 on his way to the Capitol and as he entered the building.
“Hey, whoever’s got ears on, even if you ain’t in D.C., pass the word, the people are pushing on the Capitol. We need all hands on deck,” the Justice Department news release about his conviction read. Wilson entered the Capitol building at 2:37 p.m. “wearing a gas mask,” walked through the building, and left 12 minutes later, according to the Justice Department.
In messages leading up to Jan. 6, prosecutors said Wilson made comments including “we have to get this government under control” and “It is time for good men to do bad things.”
In June 2022, law enforcement authorities searched Wilson’s home and seized six firearms and 4,800 rounds of ammunition, according to a court filing. “Wilson was not allowed to possess any firearms at the time” because of prior convictions, the filing said.
On Inauguration Day, Trump pardoned Wilson along with almost all involved in the Jan. 6 riot while commuting the charges of others. Wilson was initially released from prison after Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon, but a court ordered him to return to serve the rest of his five-year sentence in the gun case
Norm Pattis, an attorney who represented Wilson in the Jan. 6 and gun cases, said in a telephone interview that the pardon was justified because authorities discovered the gun in Wilson’s house only as a result of the Jan. 6 investigation.
Pattis said that was “a spiteful and vindictive ruling … I am delighted to see President Trump grant these pardons. The sooner we put Jan. 6 behind us, the better.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Wilson said he was grateful for the president’s actions.
“I am taking a couple of days to be with friends and family but I wanted to say God bless all of the patriotic advocates who stood by me and God bless Donald Trump,” he said.
Liz Oyer, former U.S. pardon attorney, however, criticized the president’s actions.
“These pardons are a signal to Trump’s supporters that MAGA is above the law,” Oyer said in a statement. “MAGA supporters who commit crimes will not be held accountable.”
Wilson’s gun case received national attention in part because a federal judge in February disputed the Justice Department’s argument that the president’s Jan. 6 blanket pardon applied to related cases such as the weapons found in Wilson’s home.
“The meaning of the pardon can’t be shifting from day to day,” U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said after a prosecutor said that the department’s views during the Trump administration had “evolved.”
“I’m accepting the language of the pardon,” Friedrich said of the Jan. 6 pardons while questioning whether they extended to discovery of the weaponry. “The question is: How far afield from the language can it go?” Wilson, who had been released after Trump’s initial pardon, was ordered in February to return to prison.
A White House official said in an emailed statement that Wilson’s second pardon was justified.
“Because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues,” the statement said.
The legal effort to seek the pardon was funded by Condemned USA, a group founded by Treniss Evans, who himself was convicted for his actions on Jan. 6 and said he served 20 days in prison.
Evans said in an interview Saturday that he has helped “hundreds” of Jan. 6 defendants. In Wilson’s case, he said he raised an unspecified amount of money for legal costs to help Wilson, as well as his family and even his dog.
“It was absolutely necessary to cure this injustice,” Evans said.
Aaron Schaffer and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report.
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