A young man who pleaded guilty in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and apologized for his “foolish” actions during what he said was “without a doubt one of the most embarrassing days in modern American history” now works at the Defense Department.
Elias Irizarry “is a qualified, patriotic young professional, and we are proud to have him as a political appointee,” acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement.
Valdez did not specify the job. The Washington Post first reported his appointment.
Irizarry was a 19-year-old student at The Citadel military college in South Carolina at the time of the riot.
Federal prosecutors presented images of Irizarry entering the Capitol through a broken window while he held a metal pole and making his way into a conference room before he entered the rotunda.
“Irizarry joined the mob for many hours. After he armed himself with a metal pole, Irizarry watched as rioters violently assaulted officers who were trying to make their way through the crowd,” prosecutors wrote in court documents related to his case. “He then climbed scaffolding to reach the upper West terrace and encouraged and directed rioters by excitedly waving rioters up the stairs to gain access to the building.”
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and was sentenced to 14 days behind bars.
Irizarry apologized for his actions in a five-page letter to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, telling her he had “brought great shame upon myself, my family, and, unfortunately, my country.”
“I have come to appreciate, through all this, how fortunate we are to have a stable government,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump pardoned Irizarry alongside hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants on his first day back in office in 2025.
