A Capitol riot defendant granted clemency by President Trump is now pleading guilty to sexually exploiting minors, according to federal court records filed this week in North Carolina.
David Daniel agreed to plead guilty to charges of enticing a child under age 12 to engage in sexually explicit conduct and possessing sexually explicit images of children. The plea agreement was filed Tuesday in the Western District of North Carolina. Prosecutors say Daniel committed the offenses in 2015 and 2016, and that a second minor victim, then under 18, was also victimized.
Daniel had been arrested in November 2023 for his role in the January 6 breach, where he assaulted law enforcement. Just before Trump took office, Daniel received a pardon covering his Capitol conduct. The child exploitation charges, however, remain separate legal territory.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Orso ruled in January that the pardon's language does not extend to child exploitation offenses, since those crimes are not "conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021." The judge found the pardon's plain language did not apply.
Daniel's case is not isolated. At least two other Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump have faced serious criminal convictions in separate matters. Daniel Tocci was sentenced to four years in prison in March on child sex crimes. Andrew Paul Johnson received a life sentence in March after conviction on child sex charges, with prosecutors alleging he attempted to silence a victim by offering money from a Jan. 6 settlement he expected to receive from the Trump administration.
The distinction between offenses Trump's pardon covers and those it does not has become a source of confusion and legal dispute. In a February 2025 hearing in an unrelated gun case, a federal judge pressed a Justice Department attorney on how the administration was drawing the line. The Trump administration has treated firearms seized during Jan. 6 raids differently from child sexual abuse material uncovered during investigations.
In one case, Trump issued a separate pardon for rioter Dan Wilson's gun offense after initially covering only his Capitol conduct. Prosecutors arguing before other judges have taken the position that the January 6 pardon does not apply to all defendants. Federal prosecutors stated Friday that the pardon does not cover pipe bomb charges against Brian Cole Jr., accused of planting explosives outside Democratic and Republican national committee buildings on the eve of the attack.
Daniel's sentencing date has not been scheduled. An attorney for Daniel did not respond to a request for comment.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The blunt reality here is that a pardon for Capitol conduct doesn't erase the separate crimes prosecutors can prove, and judges are making clear they won't pretend it does."
Comments