WASHINGTON — The Justice Department placed two federal prosecutors on administrative leave after they described the Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by President Donald Trump as a "mob of rioters," five people familiar with the situation told NBC News.
The prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, used the phrase in a sentencing memo filed Tuesday in the case of Taylor Taranto, a MAGA enthusiast who prosecutors say stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was involved in a "scuffle" with police officers trying to force the mob out of the building.
While Trump pardoned Taranto and about 1,500 other Jan. 6 rioters, the pardon did not cover Taranto's other actions in 2023, when, prosecutors said, he perpetuated a bomb hoax and then showed up to former President Barack Obama's neighborhood with weapons and ammo in his van. Taranto was convicted in May of "illegally carrying two firearms without a license, unlawfully possessing ammunition, and false information and hoaxes."
Taranto, 39, is set to be sentenced on Thursday, and it is unclear who will appear in court on the government's behalf. The government sought 27 months of incarceration, but Taranto is likely to be released because he already served time while being held pretrial.
In describing Taranto's background, prosecutors wrote in the memo that "thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election," and that "Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building."
They added that Taranto "promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021."
The memo also stated that, on June 29, 2023, "then-former President Donald Trump published on a social media platform the purported address of former President Barack Obama," just before Taranto appeared in his neighborhood searching for "tunnels" and saying he would "stop at nothing to get the shot" and that he had them "surrounded."
Valdivia and White were told that they would be placed on leave sometime after they filed the sentencing memo, the sources told NBC News. ABC News first reported the news.
Efforts to reach the two prosecutors were not successful.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannie Pirro released a statement that did not directly address the placing of Valdivia and White on leave.
"While we don’t comment on personnel decisions, we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously," Pirro said.
Pirro added that the office "will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”
Taranto was first identified in 2021 by online "sedition hunters" who aided the FBI in hundreds of investigation of Jan. 6 rioters.
Of the hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump, many have been accused of separate crimes, including child pornography charges that stemmed from searches of their home on Jan. 6 charges. Earlier this month, another Jan. 6 rioter was charged with threatening House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
