After Trump pardon, Jan. 6 rioter is arrested again on gun charge

A man from Florida whom President Donald Trump pardoned for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was arrested again Wednesday on a federal gun charge.

Daniel Charles Ball was being held in pretrial detention in Washington on multiple charges related to the Capitol attack when a U.S. district judge dismissed his charges. But Ball remained in federal custody on an outstanding arrest warrant from Florida.

Prosecutors alleged that on Jan. 6, 2021, he entered the Capitol and broke a window shutter, before later throwing a device at law enforcement officers that exploded in the Lower West Terrace tunnel of the building.

Ball was one of more than 1,500 people charged in the Capitol attack — including many who were convicted of violent offenses that day — who received pardons from Trump. The president also commuted the sentences of 14 others and put an end to hundreds of pending Jan. 6 prosecutions, including Ball’s.

“These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously,” Trump said Tuesday after issuing the pardons on his first day back in office. “It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

Trump’s pardons fulfilled one of his chief campaign promises. During the election, he had called Jan. 6 defendants “patriots” and “hostages” who were unfairly targeted by the Justice Department. But his sweeping act of clemency has provoked intense criticism, including from some in his own party.

The gun charges against Ball arose after federal authorities said they found firearms and ammunition in his possession while they were executing a search warrant related to the Jan. 6 case, his attorney Amy Collins told The Washington Post. Prosecutors argued in an August 2024 indictment that Ball is not allowed to possess weapons, given prior convictions unrelated to the Capitol attack.

The gun charges raise questions about how broadly the president’s act of clemency applies. Collins told The Guardian that her client will fight the charges, arguing that they are connected to federal prosecutors’ Jan. 6 investigation and are therefore covered under the pardon.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com