A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for his actions on Jan. 6 has been sentenced for possessing more than 100,000 child sexual abuse images and videos discovered in connection with his Capitol riot case.
Daniel Tocci was sentenced to four years in prison by U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District of Massachusetts after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, according to a Justice Department news release Monday that made no mention of the Jan. 6 link. Tocci had been set to go to trial in the Jan. 6 case early last year, but it was dismissed after Trump granted mass clemency to roughly 1,500 defendants tied to the attack on the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo in the child pornography case that, in addition to the child sex abuse material, Tocci's laptop "contained extremely disturbing images of violent acts, such as a cat being killed by being put in a blender, a male shooting a female in the head, a dog being beaten to death, and severed heads and limbs, as well as images and videos of bestiality.”
Before he pleaded guilty in September, Tocci's attorney had argued for the dismissal of the child sexual abuse material case because “all the evidence" stemmed from the pardoned Jan. 6 case.
"The case against Mr. Tocci must be dismissed because the entirety of the evidence stems from a warrant that, according to President Trump, should never have issued," Tocci's attorney wrote in July. "President Trump recognized the ongoing nature of the injustice against Mr. Tocci, as the investigation took place over the course of four years, and the instant case is still being prosecuted."
The Justice Department did not respond to the motion before Tocci's attorney withdrew it ahead of a plea hearing.
During Trump's second term, the Justice Department has taken different approaches to whether evidence seized in the course of Jan. 6 investigations can be used to prosecute other crimes, arguing that gun crime cases should be dismissed but not child pornography cases like Tocci's. Last year, Trump re-pardoned Jan. 6 defendant Dan Wilson over a gun case that stemmed from his Capitol siege case.
The Justice Department also contended that Trump's sweeping Jan. 6 pardons did not apply to a Capitol rioter's plot to kill members of the FBI for investigating him, resulting in a life sentence.
Brian Cole Jr., who has been charged in connection with the pipe bombs left outside the Republican and Democratic national committee headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6 attack, has also argued that Trump's sweeping pardon should apply to the charged conduct. Justice Department attorneys this week asked for more time to respond to Cole's argument about Trump's pardon.
Former Jan. 6 defendant Andrew Paul Johnson was sentenced this month to life in prison after he was convicted of child sex crimes. Law enforcement officials alleged Johnson used the promise of money he claimed he would receive from a Jan. 6 settlement with the Justice Department — one that has not materialized — to silence one of his victims. Trump has floated the idea of compensating Jan. 6 rioters, but no one has received any payments.
