Where Are They Now
The Perpetrators of January 6th and the Defenders of Democracy Who Stopped Them
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January 2026 Staff Report
Foreword by Congressman Jamie Raskin
Ranking Member, House Committee on the Judiciary
On January 6, 2021, an explosion of bloody insurrectionary violence interrupted the peaceful transfer of power in America. The violence was part of a plan, months in the making, to keep then-President Donald Trump in power despite his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election. Led by Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and other right-wing extremists, rioters brutally attacked law enforcement officers with baseball bats, bear spray, metal pipes, police shields, bike racks, American flags and Confederate battle flags. Heeding President Trump’s call to “stop the steal,” the mob of thousands broke through police lines and invaded the Capitol, smashing windows, damaging property and chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they hunted for fleeing Members of Congress and the Republican Vice President who refused to violate his oath of office by helping Donald Trump seize the presidency.
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I. TRUMP LAWYERS AND OFFICIALS
The January 6th attack on the Capitol was the culmination of a months-long conspiracy undertaken by Trump Administration officials, lawyers, and loyalists to subvert the 2020 election results, unlawfully seize the presidency, and in doing so, fatally undermine the peaceful transfer of power that our country has relied on since the Civil War. After other ploys to overturn the election faltered, Donald Trump and his supporters mobilized extremist groups and mass street violence to coerce various actors in the congressional joint certification process to overthrow the lawful result of the election.
Since the beginning of his second term, President Trump has brazenly appointed and hired many of those key participants and conspirators in the January 6th offensive into his Administration. This section spotlights the individuals, officials, and lawyers who were deeply involved in the attempt to overthrow the election—either on January 6th or in the weeks leading up to it—who continue to influence and lead the new Trump Administration.
JEFFREY CLARK (DOJ)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
In the weeks leading up to January 6th, Trump loyalist and sycophant Jeffrey Clark spearheaded the effort to subvert the Presidential Election from the DOJ. An Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division and acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, Mr. Clark was willing to do the dirty work for President Trump that higher-ranking DOJ lawyers would not. In late December 2020, after coordinating closely with Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Mr. Clark drafted a letter to the Georgia state legislature making numerous false claims about election fraud, including the false claim that DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia” and requesting that the legislature convene to call a special session to consider evidence of fraud. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue refused to sign the inaccurate letter or allow Mr. Clark to send it on DOJ letterhead. Mr. Donoghue warned Mr. Clark “what you’re proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a Presidential election.”
On January 3, Mr. Clark informed Mr. Rosen that President Trump would be naming Mr. Clark acting Attorney General in Mr. Rosen’s stead. Mr. Clark made clear his intent was to use the office of the Attorney General of the United States to persuade state legislators to throw out lawful election results and declare President Trump the winner in their states. In response, Mr. Rosen arranged a meeting with President Trump, where he and the entire senior leadership of DOJ directly informed President Trump that they and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone would all promptly resign in protest if President Trump went forward with appointing Mr. Clark acting Attorney General. In the face of this threat of mass resignation by his own political appointees, President Trump backed off and Jeffrey Clark was never propelled to the Attorney General’s office to execute his corrupt plan.
Where Is He Now?
Jeffrey Clark now serves as a senior official in the Trump White House. Clark was appointed acting Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the White House Office of Management and Budget, often referred to as the “most powerful government agency you’ve never heard of.” Before any agency can publish and finalize any major regulation, OIRA must approve it.
As we publish, Mr. Clark has failed to obtain U.S. Senate confirmation and is therefore no longer permitted to serve in that role. The White House claims that, as of November 20, his title has been changed to “Associate Administrator.” Mr. Clark’s elevation to a senior White House role stands in stark contrast to the severe disapproval and sanction he has faced in the legal community. In July 2025, the D.C. Bar’s Board on Professional Discipline recommended that Jeffrey Clark lose his law license for assisting President Trump’s failed and fraudulent bid to overturn the legitimate 2020 election, stating: “Lawyers cannot advocate for any outcome based on false statements and they certainly cannot urge others to do so. [Mr. Clark] persistently and energetically sought to do just that on an important national issue.”
ED MARTIN (2020 ELECTION DENIER)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
A lawyer and former state chair of the Missouri Republican Party, Ed Martin was another leading figure in organizing President Trump’s multifarious efforts to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential Election. On January 5, 2021, Mr. Martin said in a speech at the Capitol that he would fight until his “last breath” to “stop the steal.” Mr. Martin was himself present for the violence on the Capitol grounds on January 6th and posted enthusiastically on social media, describing the mob as “nothing out of hand” and likening the mayhem at the Capitol, which shocked the country, to “Mardi Gras.”
Following the attack, Mr. Martin became the defense lawyer for numerous January 6th rioters charged with felony crimes and supported a foundation formed to support their legal costs. As part of his work defending J6ers, Mr. Martin repeatedly interviewed and celebrated a number of them, including a well-known neo-Nazi named Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a rioter whom Mr. Martin called an “extraordinary leader” and a “good friend.” A Holocaust denier who has been photographed in a self-drawn Hitler mustache, Mr. Hale-Cusanelli has compared Orthodox Jews to a “plague of locusts,” and blamed Jews for the spread of COVID-19.
Where Is He Now?
In 2024, the Republican National Committee hired Ed Martin to write its national policy platform. Upon entering office in 2025, President Trump appointed Mr. Martin as Interim United States Attorney in Washington, D.C., and nominated him to permanently fill the post, one of the most important legal jobs in the U.S. government. During his time as acting U.S. Attorney, Mr. Martin repeatedly drew attention by acting in partisan and ethically questionable ways, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office as “President Trump’s lawyers” and officially dropping a case against a January 6th Capitol rioter whom he himself was still representing at the time. Mr. Martin failed to gain the necessary votes in the Republican-majority Senate due to his conduct as acting U.S. Attorney, close ties to January 6th, and continuing association with neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and other antisemitic extremists.
In May 2025, President Trump withdrew Mr. Martin’s nomination for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and instead named him to be head of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group and also the United States Pardon Attorney, two appointments not requiring Senate confirmation. Mr. Martin has since served as President Trump’s all-purpose legal enforcer and spearheaded several of the Trump Administration’s most politically charged and obviously pretextual investigations against President Trump’s political enemies, particularly those alleging “mortgage fraud” against New York Attorney General Letitia James and others. During his investigation of Ms. James, Mr. Martin engaged in bizarre and potentially illegal conduct by encouraging Ms. James to resign her office as an act of “good faith” and conducting a photo shoot in front of her Brooklyn home. Grand juries have twice refused to approve indictments stemming from Mr. Martin’s investigation into Ms. James, and a federal grand jury is now reportedly investigating whether Mr. Martin engaged in criminal misconduct in the course of these prosecutions.
JARED WISE (JANUARY 6TH RIOTER)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
On January 6th, riot participant Jared Wise, a former FBI agent, cheered and shouted as he broke into the Capitol. Mr. Wise berated and excoriated officers defending the Capitol, telling them, “You guys are disgusting. I’m former—I’m former law enforcement. You’re disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can’t see it. ... Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!” Mr. Wise also encouraged other rioters to attack the police line, shouting, “Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill ‘em!” and chanted, “Kill ‘em! Kill ‘em! Kill ‘em!” He has never expressed remorse or contrition for his participation in the events of January 6th nor his comments about law enforcement.
Where Is He Now?
When President Trump issued his blanket pardon for January 6th rioters, Mr. Wise was scheduled to stand trial on two felony criminal charges related to January 6th, civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, as well as four other offenses, including unlawfully entering the Capitol. Those charges were dismissed when President Trump pardoned Mr. Wise on his first day in office.
In 2025, the Trump Administration appointed Mr. Wise to a senior role at DOJ, where he is now a counselor to fellow January 6th participant Ed Martin, the U.S. Pardon Attorney and head of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group. According to email records, Mr. Wise holds the title of senior adviser in the office of the Deputy Attorney General and has been working on claims of “weaponization”—which describes less the conduct of those targeted of these investigations than the Trump DOJ’s entire purpose.
HEATHER HONEY (2020 ELECTION DENIER)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
Heather Honey was a corporate investigator who, along with Trump loyalist and attorney Cleta Mitchell, pressed false claims about the 2020 election following Joe Biden’s victory. Ms. Honey notably claimed there were more votes cast than registered voters in Pennsylvania—a wild and debunked assertion that Donald Trump repeatedly parroted despite his knowledge that it was false. Ms. Honey also reportedly distorted voter data to aid the notorious election denying audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, sponsored by Republican Members of the Arizona State Senate and ran by Cyber Ninjas—a firm ran by an election denier with no relevant experience. Naturally, the audit did not find any actual evidence of fraud and the Cyber Ninjas’ CEO stated in private text messages that he could not understand the numbers his team had put together and described their whole report as “screwy.”
Where Is She Now?
Ms. Honey has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On a call with right-wing activists in March 2025, Ms. Honey suggested that President Trump could declare a “national emergency” to dictate rules for elections in every state without any congressional approval. Ms. Honey is recorded as saying: “And therefore, we have some additional powers that don’t exist right now, and therefore, we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.” Ms. Honey has repeated extravagant and baseless suggestions of voter fraud at DHS: on calls with other senior officials, she has repeatedly cited a conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats, a claim that has repeatedly been found meritless by courts and independent reports.
RUDY GIULIANI (TRUMP ATTORNEY)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
Rudy Giuliani served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer during the period after President Trump lost the 2020 Presidential Election, and he was a key figure in promoting false claims that voter fraud affected the election results. Shortly following the election, a number of Trump campaign and Trump Administration lawyers became concerned that Mr. Giuliani was “unhinged” and had been presenting election fraud theories for which there was no evidence: several quit rather than push these false claims. In the weeks following the election, Mr. Giuliani and his associates such as Jenna Ellis brought meritless lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia on behalf of President Trump in states that he lost. The fantastical and demonstrably false claims and legal theories raised in these lawsuits would later be described by courts as “sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence,” “strained legal arguments without merit,” claims that “did not prove by any standard of proof that any illegal votes were cast and counted,” and a “fundamental and obvious misreading of the Constitution.”
Mr. Giuliani’s efforts went far further than advancing false claims in election lawsuits. In states won by President Biden, Mr. Giuliani played a key role in pressuring state officials to throw out the lawful election results. In Arizona, Mr. Giuliani pressed Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers to replace Presidential Electors for President-elect Biden with Electors for President Trump. When Speaker Bowers requested any proof of fraud that would justify throwing out his constituents’ votes, Mr. Giuliani responded: “we’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” In Michigan, he wrote to a state legislator that they needed “to pass a joint resolution from the legislature that states the election is in dispute, there’s an ongoing investigation by the legislature, and the Electors sent by Governor Whitmer are not the official electors of the state of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline under Michigan law.” Through these efforts, Mr. Giuliani went well beyond proposing an alternate slate of Electors but actively attempted to delegitimize the lawful ones.
On January 6th, Mr. Giuliani spoke at President Trump’s “Save America” rally on the Ellipse where he urged the restive crowd, many of whom would attack the Capitol within hours, to “have a trial by combat.” That evening, as the joint session of Congress was set to reconvene, Mr. Giuliani made a series of calls to lawmakers to convince them to continue to stall or stop the presidential certification, reportedly contacting or attempting to contact Representative Jim Jordan and Senators Marsha Blackburn, Tommy Tuberville, Bill Hagerty, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Dan Sullivan.
Where Is He Now?
Mr. Giuliani, perhaps more than any other co-conspirator, faced significant public sanction for his role in fomenting January 6th. In August 2023, Mr. Giuliani was indicted in Georgia, alongside more than a dozen other co-conspirators, including President Trump, for his role in trying to reverse the lawful outcome of the 2020 election in the state. The criminal case against Mr. Giuliani and his co-conspirators was dropped in November 2025 by a Republican prosecutor, despite the prosecutor acknowledging evidence of an unlawful “campaign that ultimately culminated in an attack on the Capitol, undertaken to prevent the Vice President from carrying out his ministerial duty of counting the electoral votes” and the guilty pleas of four co-conspirators—Trump attorneys Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as former Republican poll watcher Scott Hall.
In 2023, Mr. Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he had defamed by spreading false claims that they had cheated and scanned ballots multiple times to benefit Joe Biden. In April 2024, Mr. Guiliani was indicted, alongside other co-conspirators and fake electors, for his role in the fake electors scheme in Arizona. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is still pursuing this case. That same year, Mr. Guiliani was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C., for his role in attempting to overturn the election: the New York state court found that Mr. Giuliani “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large ... to improperly bolster [his] narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client.” Despite evidence of widespread fraud and criminality on the part of Mr. Giuliani, President Trump has recently appointed him to a Homeland Security advisory council and announced he will be awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom—our nation’s highest civilian honor. In November 2025, President Trump pardoned Mr. Giuliani, among others, for his role in attempting to overturn the election results. Because Mr. Giuliani has been charged only at the state level, this pardon was largely symbolic.
ELLIOT GAISER (TRUMP LAWYER)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
As a lawyer for the Trump campaign, Elliot Gaiser crafted legal arguments used to advance the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results, including the claim that Vice President Mike Pence had the legal authority to refuse to recognize Electors from certain states in the certification process on January 6th. Mr. Gaiser also developed some of the arguments President Trump made to support his false claim that he had actually won Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes.
Where is he now?
Mr. Gaiser left the conservative firm Jones Day to become Ohio’s Solicitor General in 2023. In 2025, President Trump nominated Mr. Gaiser as Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Mr. Gaiser was later confirmed by the Senate on a party line vote with senior Democrats calling him “completely unqualified” for the role. While Mr. Gaiser has worked on high-level appellate issues, his youth and complete lack of experience in DOJ or the Executive Branch made his appointment to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for OLC a surprise and suggest that he secured the appointment due to his unwavering loyalty to President Trump and willingness to push false claims about the election. At OLC, Mr. Gaiser has overseen the preparation of a memorandum authorizing the Trump Administration to kill noncombatants in the Caribbean.
BORIS EPSHTEYN (2020 ELECTION DENIER AND TRUMP FIXER)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
After the 2020 election, Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House staffer, private lawyer, and surrogate for President Trump, worked with Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, and other lawyers to organize slates of counterfeit electors for the purpose of replacing lawful Electoral College votes in order to declare victory for Donald Trump. Emails among Trump affiliated lawyers show that Mr. Epshteyn was “taking the lead” in overseeing the fake elector scheme in swing states and had asked another individual to draft “a sample elector ballot for Wisconsin” and other states, thereby providing a veneer of authenticity to those posing as Electors. Even after Joe Biden was inaugurated, Mr. Epshteyn made statements indicating he believed President Trump should be reinstated and the certified results from the Electoral College should be thrown out: “What I believe is going to happen is that when we have Arizona decertified, Pennsylvania decertified, Georgia decertified, potentially Wisconsin, Michigan decertified, this is going to go right to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is going to decide, how do you handle a stolen election?” Mr. Epshteyn was an active player in the criminal networks prosecuted for seeking to overturn the 2020 election: election cases in Georgia identified him as “Individual 3,” those in Wisconsin identify him as “Individual A,” and the federal indictment of Donald Trump refers to him as “Co-conspirator 6.” In 2024, Arizona officials indicted Mr. Epshteyn on nine charges relating to his attempt to overturn the election. That prosecution is ongoing.
Where Is He Now?
While Mr. Epshteyn remains under indictment in Arizona, he wields significant influence in the second Trump Administration, reportedly hand-picking lawyers to serve at both DOJ and the White House. In November 2024, Mr. Epshteyn’s influence led to him being implicated in a pay-to-play shakedown scheme: Republican attorneys working for President Trump reportedly conducted an internal investigation into allegations that Mr. Epshteyn had requested as much as $100,000 per month to set up job-seekers with posts in the new Administration. Although the investigating attorneys recommended that Mr. Epshteyn should no longer be allowed near President-elect Trump and should not be employed by any Trump-organized entity, the Trump transition team appeared to reject that advice. Early in 2025, Mr. Epshteyn, working as a private citizen, also spearheaded unprecedented and extortionary negotiations between the Trump Administration and major private law firms, with President Trump agreeing to drop investigations and unconstitutional executive orders against them in return for the law firms offering nearly a billion dollars in pro bono services applied to his pet political causes.
II. RIOTERS
On January 6, 2021, thousands of people, incited by Donald Trump’s Big Lie, stormed the Capitol in one of the largest and most consequential acts of mob violence in American history. By the end of 2024, of the almost 1,600 people who were federally charged for their involvement that day, nearly 1,300 were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt while hundreds of others still awaited trial. On January 20, 2025, President Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of everyone convicted of January 6th related crimes, including hundreds who violently assaulted police and further ordered DOJ to dismiss all pending cases. This section covers just a few of the individuals who participated in the attack on the Capitol and canvasses their current known activities.
EDWARD JACOB LANG
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
“Jake” Lang, pictured with the baseball bat and stolen riot shield above, was part of the violent mob that attacked law enforcement officers tasked with guarding the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol. Mr. Lang led other rioters in viciously beating several law enforcement officers, including with a stolen police shield and a baseball bat. In the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, Mr. Lang tried to use online platforms to organize further paramilitary action to block the peaceful transition of power from President Trump to President-elect Biden at the Inauguration, calling it “war” and telling friends he was “getting a fucking arsenal together.”
Where Is He Now?
After President Trump’s pardon secured his release from jail while awaiting trial, Mr. Lang launched a campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Florida. During an October 2025 interview with Newsweek, Mr. Lang said that he had no regrets about his role in the events of January 6th and said that he “do[es] not believe that police officers were assaulted.” He also said that he “would deputize the Proud Boys and the January 6 Patriots to bounty hunt illegal immigrants,” stirring speculation that numerous January 6 rioters had in fact found jobs as masked agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
CHRISTOPHER MOYNIHAN
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
Christopher Moynihan broke through the security perimeter on the east side of the Capitol with fellow rioters. Once inside the Capitol building, Mr. Moynihan entered the Senate chamber where he rifled through a notebook on top of a Senator’s desk, taking out papers, and snapping pictures with his cellphone. While looking through the papers, he said, “There’s got to be something we can use against these fucking scumbags.” Mr. Moynihan also “occupied the dais of the Senate, joining other rioters in shouts and chanting,” and did not leave the chamber until he was forced out by police. In February 2023, Mr. Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and $2,000 in restitution for his actions during the rampage.
Where Is He Now?
Like other rioters, Mr. Moynihan was released when President Trump issued a blanket pardon to everyone involved in breaching the Capitol. In October 2025, Mr. Moynihan was arrested by New York state law enforcement and charged with a state felony offense for threatening to murder House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. According to court documents, Mr. Moynihan sent text messages saying: “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live.” Mr. Moynihan further stated: “Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated” and “I will kill him for the future.”
EDWARD KELLEY
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
Equipped with a gas mask and a helmet, Edward Kelly worked with a team of rioters to violently throw a police officer onto the concrete steps outside of the Capitol. Mr. Kelley then broke into the Capitol by using a piece of wood to smash open the window next to the Senate wing door. On November 7, 2024, a federal district court judge in Washington D.C. found Mr. Kelley guilty on 11 charges, including assaulting law enforcement officers and destruction of government property.
Where Is He Now?
While awaiting trial for his participation in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Kelley conspired to murder law enforcement officials, including FBI agents and employees. He developed and distributed a “kill list” of law enforcement personnel who investigated his conduct related to the January 6th insurrection and planned a violent attack on the Knoxville FBI Field Office. On November 20, 2024, Mr. Kelley was convicted in a federal court in Tennessee of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat. Due to President Trump’s sweeping grant of clemency for those who participated in the attack, DOJ dropped the charges against Mr. Kelley for his role in the January 6th insurrection prior to sentencing. However, the pardon did not extend to his unrelated second criminal conviction in Tennessee, and Mr. Kelley was ultimately sentenced to life in prison on July 2, 2025.
TAYLOR TARANTO
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
At the Capitol, Taylor Taranto “picked up and threw pieces of metal scaffolding that were stacked on the ground.” Mr. Taranto proceeded to storm the Capitol with other rioters, fighting with police officers and even fighting other rioters using a cane. When forced to leave by law enforcement, Mr. Taranto lingered at the Capitol for a significant time, remaining on the Capitol grounds on the east side of the building with other rioters. Video later surfaced of Mr. Taranto posting a video on January 6th, stating “so we’re in the Capitol” adding “we just stormed it.” Mr. Taranto was charged with four misdemeanors tied to his involvement in the Capitol breach.
Where Is He Now?
On June 29, 2023, two years after his involvement on January 6th, Mr. Taranto was arrested in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., near former President Barack Obama’s home. At the time of arrest, law enforcement officers searched Mr. Taranto’s vehicle and found two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Court documents note that the arrest followed several incidents where Mr. Taranto expressed a desire to blow up his vehicle at a federal facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland, made threatening comments towards Ranking Member Jamie Raskin while visiting an elementary school near Mr. Raskin’s home, and then drove to the Kalorama neighborhood where President Obama’s residence is located. Mr. Taranto was convicted on firearms charges by a federal district court judge on May 21, 2025. He was ultimately sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release on October 30, 2025. Last month, a federal judge ordered Mr. Taranto to return to his home in Washington State after he violated the terms of his release and was spotted wandering around Ranking Member Raskin’s neighborhood in Maryland.
ENRIQUE TARRIO
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
The leader of the Proud Boys, a white supremacist paramilitary group, Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to the longest sentence of all defendants in the January 6th cases—22 years. In December 2020, a month after the election and just weeks before January 6th, Mr. Tarrio organized a violent rally in support of Donald Trump in Washington D.C., leading roughly 200 Proud Boys in bloody clashes with counter-protestors and police, resulting in the stabbing of 4 individuals and the shooting of another. Before January 6, 2021, Mr. Tarrio prepared his paramilitary group for the attack on the Capitol, establishing a tactical chain of command, choosing a time and place for the attack, and giving specific instructions on where and how to gather. On January 2, 2021, Mr. Tarrio created an encrypted message group for Proud Boys to communicate, where members posted grim encouragement to each other: “time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill.” Mr. Tarrio was unable to storm the Capitol on January 6th, having been arrested upon his entry to Washington, D.C. and ordered to leave; his lieutenants led over 200 Proud Boys from Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse to the Capitol where they launched a ferocious attack on the West Front, brutally assaulting hundreds of officers. Mr. Tarrio privately claimed credit for the riot at the Capitol, bragging to Proud Boys senior leadership, “Make no mistake ... we did this.” At his sentencing, a federal judge found that Mr. Tarrio’s conduct constituted an act of terrorism.
Where is He Now?
On January 20, 2025, President Trump pardoned Mr. Tarrio, along with everyone else involved in the storming of the Capitol. Shortly after his release, Mr. Tarrio returned to leading the Proud Boys, which President Trump had famously told during the first presidential debate in 2020 to “stand back and stand by.” Mr. Tarrio was recently arrested for assaulting a woman outside the Capitol, but federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., declined to bring charges. Along with four other Proud Boys, Mr. Tarrio is now suing DOJ for $100 million claiming that federal prosecutors violated his rights during the January 6th investigation. Evidently, it is not enough for the Proud Boys to be pardoned and freed for their violent sedition against America—they want to get paid for it too.
III. DEFENDERS OF DEMOCRACY
President Trump’s effort to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election was unsuccessful because at each stage of the attempted coup, patriotic Americans—public officials and private citizens, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, from all walks of life—pushed back. In the weeks leading up to January 6th, numerous Trump Administration and state officials refused to promote bogus claims of fraud and refused to participate in President Trump’s multifaceted scheme to overthrow the election. When these initial efforts were unsuccessful and an attack was launched on the Capitol, thousands of law enforcement officers from the Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and over a dozen local, state, and federal agencies responded, at great personal risk, to protect the Capitol, Members of Congress, staff, and American constitutional democracy. Then, when the smoke cleared, countless prosecutors and other public officials committed to holding those who attempted to overthrow American democracy accountable. This section focuses on some of those individuals and how they pushed back against Donald Trump and his MAGA forces—before January 6th, on the day itself, and in the years after—and how they have fared since.
CAREER PROSECUTORS FIRED DAYS AFTER TRUMP TOOK OFFICE
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
Following the January 6th attack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. surged resources to ensure that the nearly 2,000 individuals who breached the Capitol were held accountable. To accomplish this historic prosecution, the office hired numerous young attorneys who left various other legal jobs, including lucrative positions at prominent law firms, to serve their country. Thanks in part to these line prosecutors’ efforts, the investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Breach was the largest and most successful prosecution in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence.
Where Are They Now?
On January 31, 2025, DOJ fired 15 of these prosecutors: their termination letter stated that “[t]his decision is based upon your actions in the prosecution of persons relating to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The letter further cited an Executive Order issued on January 20, 2025, in which President Trump characterized the work of these prosecutors as “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years”—a claim federal courts have deemed a “revisionist myth.” At least one of the 15 attorneys is a veteran and at least two had wives who were pregnant when they were fired. Other terminations and targeting of January 6th prosecutors quickly followed; nearly 50 prosecutors assigned to the Capitol Breach have been fired or resigned since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, while others have “been targeted in hundreds of online attacks by rioters or their supporters, urging punishments ranging from disbarment and firing to criminal charges.” This purge has spread to other parts of the January 6th investigation: Attorney General Pam Bondi has also fired dozens of prosecutors and support staff that worked on Jack Smith’s Special Counsel team.
These firings have led to a staffing shortage in the consistently overstretched office. As one prosecutor explained: “I would have been more than happy to go to the Superior Court division. Now the Superior Court division will be short of folks to prosecute local D.C. crime.” Instead, the office has been forced to hire and train new attorneys, including resorting to hiring 20 JAG lawyers due to the staffing shortage. Another prosecutor pointed out this absurdity: “we were looking at each other thinking, 15 of us just got fired when we had finished training for that exact job. You know, you didn’t have to bring in JAG officers to do the job that we were ready, willing and able to do.” Following their dismissal, many employers, including major national law firms, refused to hire these dismissed prosecutors, fearing retribution from the Trump Administration, which was targeting specific lawyers and major law firms who had crossed President Trump. Many have since returned to public service working as state and local prosecutors in jurisdictions around the country.
GREG ROSEN (PROSECUTOR)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
As Chief of DOJ’s Capitol Siege Section, Greg Rosen supervised the largest federal prosecution in American history and oversaw more than 1,000 prosecutions stemming from the January 6th attack. Mr. Rosen trained and managed more than 200 prosecutors, coordinating every stage of the investigation from grand jury practice through trials and appeals to the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. Under his leadership, DOJ secured partial or full convictions in every single January 6th jury trial. In 2023, Mr. Rosen received the Anti-Defamation League’s Shield Award for his work on behalf of law enforcement promoting civil justice and public safety. In 2024, Mr. Rosen received an award from DOJ recognizing him as one of the best supervisors across all 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the country.
Where Is He Now?
On February 28, 2025, acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin demoted Mr. Rosen to the job of handling local misdemeanor cases, the type of work typically assigned to first-year “baby prosecutors.” Mr. Martin, who himself had participated in the effort to overturn the election, wrote: “Let me be clear: this change is not temporary.” Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Ballou said of the demotion: “Greg Rosen, who ran the Capitol Siege Section, was, quite literally, the best boss and team leader I’ve ever seen. Like a great football coach, he brought the best out of every player. That Ed Martin is trying to demote or humiliate him speaks to the smallness of Martin and his agenda.”
In June 2025, Mr. Rosen resigned and joined a law firm in Washington, D.C. In interviews with CBS News and the PBS NewsHour, Mr. Rosen spoke out against the mass pardons: “The message that the pardons send is that political violence towards a political goal is acceptable in a modern democratic society. That, from my perspective, is anathema to a constitutional republic.” Of the demotions and firings, he emphasized: “To see those talented prosecutors be marginalized or removed from office is an affront to the independence of the department.”
AQUILINO GONELL (U.S. CAPITOL POLICE)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
An Army veteran of the Iraq War, Mr. Gonell was a Capitol Police Sergeant who bravely defended the Capitol against rampaging rioters and extremists on January 6, 2021. Since Sergeant Gonell was one of the few officers who did not lose his shield to a rioter, he held the front line for hours, fighting off dozens of rioters trying to invade the Capitol who called him a traitor, other slurs, and attacked him with a variety of weaponry. At one point, Sergeant Gonell was pulled under the crowd and could not breathe, leading him to believe he was going to die in the attack. Even after that terrifying experience, Sergeant Gonell kept fighting to protect the Capitol, working to stop the mob from ascending the stairs deeper into the building. Sergeant Gonell described the attack as akin to a “medieval battlefield.”
Where Is He Now?
Sergeant Gonell required two major surgeries and physical and mental therapy to recover from his severe injuries and trauma after January 6, 2021. Despite having passed tests to become a lieutenant in the Capitol Police, Sergeant Gonell was forced to resign in 2022 due to the permanent injuries he sustained in the attack to his right shoulder and rotator cuff and his left foot. Following his resignation, Sergeant Gonell wrote a powerful book about his experience serving the United States, entitled American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Biden in 2023 and numerous other commendations. His police career and the salary his family depends on have been badly undercut by his disabling injuries, but he is looking for ways to return to the police work he loves.
MICHAEL FANONE (D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
On the morning of January 6th, Officer Michael Fanone, a narcotics officer with MPD, was off duty, but when he heard frantic radio calls for assistance related to the mob violence at the Capitol, he rushed to the scene of the violence to assist his fellow officers. There, after joining the fight, he was savagely assaulted by rioters, who dragged him down the steps of the Capitol, beat him with pipes, stunned him with a Taser multiple times, and sprayed him with chemicals. While he was pinned to the ground, rioters tried to grab his service weapon, screaming “Kill him with his own gun!” At one point, Officer Fanone unsuccessfully plead with his attackers to relent, telling the MAGA rioters that he had four daughters at home. As a result of the mob violence, Officer Fanone suffered burns, a heart attack, a concussion, a traumatic brain injury, and PTSD.
Where Is He Now?
Unable to return to his normal duties, Officer Fanone was given a desk job but resigned less than a year later, ending an approximately 20-year career with MPD. Officer Fanone has remained publicly engaged about his experience and that of his fellow officers who endured violence from other Americans that day, serving as a law enforcement analyst for cable news networks and speaking out about what is happening in our country at major events. Officer Fanone wrote a book about his experience as an officer who defended the Capitol on January 6th entitled Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul. After President Trump pardoned the five men convicted of assaulting him, Officer Fanone asked a Maryland judge to reinstate the protective orders that had also been eliminated by the pardon. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Biden in 2023.
MICHAEL GORDON (PROSECUTOR)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
Michael Gordon was a federal prosecutor who prosecuted some of the most notorious January 6th rioters. For example, he won convictions against defendants like Kyle Fitzsimons, who received an 87-month prison sentence for his brutal assault of five law enforcement officers, as well as a 54-month sentence for Richard “Bigo” Barnett—the man who put his feet up on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk. In June 2025, Mr. Gordon was fired despite having received consistently top performance reviews over his eight years working as a prosecutor.
Where is He Now?
In July 2025, with two other prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Mr. Gordon filed a lawsuit challenging his firing, arguing that it disregarded “long-standing statutory and regulatory protections that govern how and when members of the civil service can be terminated, and the limits thereof.” The litigation is still ongoing. Mr. Gordon has said of the firing: “We did what was right for the right reasons, without fear or favor. ... I didn’t lose my job for breaking the law. I lost it for enforcing it.”
RUSTY BOWERS (REPUBLICAN LEGISLATOR FROM ARIZONA)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
As the Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Speaker Rusty Bowers faced intense pressure from President Trump and his allies to aid their unconstitutional attempt to overturn the 2020 election and illegally install President Trump at the White House. A committed Republican and Trump-voter, Speaker Bowers publicly rejected and debunked claims that Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Presidential Election was procured by fraud. When Rudy Giuliani and President Trump tried to force him to call the Arizona legislature back into session to overturn the lawful results, Speaker Bowers, a devout Mormon, explained to them: “You are asking me to do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath.” Speaker Bowers faced aggressive retaliation for refusing to support the President’s conspiracy, including an episode where someone “swatted” him by submitting a false tip to police that Speaker Bowers had killed his wife.
Where Is He Now?
A long-time Republican leader in Arizona, Speaker Bowers was censured by the state’s Republican Party for his staunch opposition to the President’s conspiracy. In 2022, due to term-limits in the Arizona House, Speaker Bowers sought reelection to his old seat in the State Senate but lost the Republican primary after his resistance to President Trump’s plans became a central campaign issue. Speaker Bowers received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2022 and the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Biden in 2023.
EUGENE GOODMAN (U.S. CAPITOL POLICE)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
On January 6th, Officer Eugene Goodman, a United States Capitol Police Officer, responded cleverly and effectively to the attack on the Capitol. In a now-famous video, Officer Goodman is seen singlehandedly keeping an angry mob of rioters at bay in the Capitol Building. As the mob pushed forward, Officer Goodman distracted the rioters and baited them into pursuing him the wrong way down Capitol hallways, drawing the mob away from where Vice President Pence and his family were taking shelter. Officer Goodman also personally directed Senator Mitt Romney—one of the few Republican Senators who refused to endorse President Trump’s false and baseless claims of election fraud—away from the path of the advancing mob.
Where Is He Now?
Officer Goodman continues to serve with the Capitol Police as a Private First Class. After the riot, Officer Goodman was promoted to serve as acting Deputy Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate for several months. Officer Goodman received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Biden in 2023 as well as numerous other commendations for his valorous service. Nonetheless, Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to put up a plaque honoring the service of Officer Goodman and his colleagues who defended the Capitol on January 6th, despite being required to under federal law. The plaque now sits in a storage room in the Capitol.
DANIEL HODGES (D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
On January 6th, MPD Officer Daniel Hodges responded to the attack on the Capitol. During some of the fiercest fighting of the afternoon, Officer Hodges was separated from his platoon and assaulted by rioters, who stole his radio and gas mask and beat him with his own baton. One man grabbed Officer Hodges’s face and attempted to gouge his eyes with his thumbs. In an infamous video, the rioters pinned Officer Hodges against a door frame, crushing him mercilessly and beating his head against the door, causing him to scream and bleed from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. One rioter told Officer Hodges, “You will die on your knees.” Officer Hodges was left concussed by the assault, but amazingly, after he was dislodged and his fellow officers washed the bear spray from his face, returned to the fight.
Where Is He Now?
Officer Hodges continues to serve as an MPD officer, where he works in the force’s civil disturbance unit: he was on duty for President Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Officer Hodges received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Biden in 2023. He remains publicly engaged, offering testimony and analysis relating to contemporary law enforcement issues as well as the trauma of January 6th.
PAMELA HEMPHILL (A.K.A. “MAGA GRANNY”)
Actions Related to Overturning the Lawful 2020 Election Results and Seizing the Presidency for Trump on January 6th:
In the days leading up to January 6th, Pamela Hemphill, an Idaho resident, posted encouragement for MAGA Republicans to go to Washington, D.C., for January 6th, saying “its [sic] a WAR!” and posted herself holding a firearm under a caption that she was “on my way to Washington.” On January 6th, Ms. Hemphill attended the speech of President Trump at the Ellipse, stating to another person in the crowd “Let’s do this; let’s go to the Capitol. We did it in Boise,” a reference to the storming of the Idaho Statehouse by protestors of COVID-19 restrictions on August 24, 2020. Ms. Hemphill, who was 67 on January 6, 2021, livestreamed the attack on the Capitol on Facebook and spent roughly 20 minutes in the Capitol. In January 2022, Ms. Hemphill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for her role in the riot at the Capitol on January 6th. She was sentenced to, and served, 60 days in prison, and received three years of probation.
Where Is She Now?
Ms. Hemphill was one of nearly 1,600 rioters pardoned by President Trump on his first day in office on January 20, 2025. She, however, rejected the pardon. She stated that accepting the pardon “would be a slap in the face to the Capitol police officers, to the rule of law, to our whole nation. I would be contributing to their false propaganda—that they continue to gaslight the nation and everyone that it was a peaceful protest.” She continued: “You know, I broke the law that day --period, black and white. I’m not a victim. I’m a volunteer. And I don't want to be a part of them trying to rewrite history what really happened that day.”
RUBY FREEMAN AND SHAYE MOSS (ELECTION WORKERS IN GEORGIA)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, during the 2020 election. As part of the conspiracy to overturn the election, Rudy Giuliani falsely accused the two women, who are mother and daughter, of “changing votes,” claiming he had footage of them “passing around USB ports as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine” that turned out to be a mint. During the call in which he pressured the Georgia Secretary of State to find votes for him, President Trump cited the conspiracy and mentioned Ms. Freeman 18 times, saying they needed to be questioned and have their homes searched. These fabricated claims led to death threats, racist harassment, and even FBI questioning of the women, causing them to retreat from public life.
In tearful testimony to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Ms. Moss said she experienced “a lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like ‘Be glad its 2020 and not 1920.’” She explained that being the target of Mr. Giuliani’s conspiracy theory turned her life upside down, admitting that she stopped going to the grocery store, went into hiding, changed her appearance, and left her job due to the harassment. “I’ve lost my name. I’ve lost my reputation. I’ve lost my sense of security.”
Where Are They Now?
A result of this harassment, Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman filed claims against those that spread false claims about them, including One America News Network, The Gateway Pundit, and Rudy Giuliani. In the course of the lawsuit, Mr. Giuliani admitted his statements were defamatory, repeated them nonetheless, and failed to comply with judicial orders, eventually resulting in a multimillion dollar judgment in Ms. Moss’s and Freeman’s favor that included $75 million in punitive damages alone. They eventually settled with Mr. Giulani, who faced bankruptcy, for an undisclosed sum. In 2023, President Biden awarded both women the Presidential Citizens Medal.
MIKE PENCE (VICE PRESIDENT)
Actions Defending the Rule of Law and American Democracy Related to the Insurrectionary Violence of January 6th:
Vice President Pence faced immense coercive pressure from President Trump and his supporters to exploit his ministerial role in the election certification process to reject Electoral College votes from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and other states that voted for Joe Biden in order to throw the 2020 election to President Trump. Vice President Pence objected and resisted, saying that neither the Constitution nor federal law gave him the power to cast aside lawful votes for the Presidency. Undeterred, President Trump pushed on, stating publicly at one point that Vice President Pence agreed with him and calling him just before the certification to say “You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy.” In the face of this pressure, Vice President Pence sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter to Congress stating that the Constitution prevented him from deciding which electoral votes to count. When Vice President Pence refused to do President Trump’s bidding, President Trump sent an angry mob to the Capitol to ensure that his Vice President would “do the right thing.” Outside the Capitol, rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and erected gallows. As rioters stormed the Capitol and came within 30 seconds of reaching the Vice President, he and his family were rushed to safety; U.S. Secret Service sought to take him away from the Capitol, but Vice President Pence refused, knowing that he may never be brought back to complete the certification of the election, stating stubbornly “I’m not getting in that car.” As the violence raged, President Trump sent out a tweet saying that “Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what needed to be done” and even expressed support for hanging Vice President Pence to senior aides. As President Trump refused to take any federal action to quell the riot he had set into motion, Vice President Pence asked the Department of Defense to deploy the National Guard to take control of the situation. After the Capitol was cleared of rioters, Vice President Pence continued to preside over Congress’s certification of the election and declared Joe Biden the winner.
Where Is He Now?
Vice President Pence has distanced himself from President Trump, including by running against him for the Republican nomination in the 2024 Presidential Election. He has repeatedly defended his opposition to the President’s conspiracy, saying he “chose the Constitution” over Donald Trump and vehemently disagreed with the notion of mass-pardoning violent rioters. After dropping out of the race for president, Vice President Pence ultimately declined to attend the Republican National Convention or endorse President Trump’s campaign in the general election. In 2025, he received a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power.”