By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – A January 6, 2021, rioter, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to a harassment charge after being accused of threatening to kill U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Christopher Moynihan, 35, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge in a hearing in Clinton, New York, and will be sentenced in April. His representative could not immediately be reached.
“Threats against elected officials are not political speech, they are criminal acts that strike at the heart of public safety and our democratic system,” Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi said in a statement.
Moynihan, 34, was charged in October after he sent threatening text messages about an appearance Jeffries was scheduled to make in New York City, according to a complaint filed in New York state court in Clinton.
“Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live. … I will kill him for the future,” the text messages read, according to the complaint.
“These text messages placed the recipient in reasonable fear of the imminent murder and assassination of Hakeem Jeffries by the defendant,” the complaint had said.
In February 2023, Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison on charges including obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony.
He was among nearly 1,590 people charged in the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump on January 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.
On his first day back in office last year, Trump pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the Capitol attack in a show of solidarity with supporters who backed his false claim of victory in the 2020 election.
Some other January 6 rioters have also been re-arrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes, according to a watchdog.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry)
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