President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned Dan Wilson, a former Jan. 6 defendant, for a second time on gun charges not related to his conduct during the 2021 riot at the Capitol.
Wilson pleaded guilty in May 2024 to three crimes including a charge of impeding or injuring an officer in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and two gun charges in Kentucky from 2023, when his home was searched as part of the Jan. 6 investigation.
A White House official confirmed the new pardon to NBC News, saying that Trump decided to do so because Wilson’s gun charges stemmed from the Jan. 6 investigation.
Wilson was originally pardoned in January on the Capitol riot-related charge as part of Trump’s mass pardon of roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants shortly after he was inaugurated to a second term.
George Pallas, an attorney for Wilson, told NBC News he was “elated” following Trump’s new pardon.
“As Dan Wilson’s attorney, I am elated by President Trump’s bold and unapologetic pardon which shatters this sham conviction stemming from the January 6 witch hunt. This is a resounding victory for justice, and against judicial overreach. Dan can now move forward and we applaud this decisive step toward true accountability and national reconciliation,” Pallas said.
Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, on Saturday said in a post on X that the president had also pardoned Suzanne Kaye, another former Jan. 6 defendant.
Kaye had been sentenced to prison in 2023 for threatening FBI agents online.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration tried to argue in federal court that the mass pardon following the president’s inauguration should also apply to the gun charges Wilson was facing.
But at the time, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich was skeptical of the government’s argument, pointing to the fact that its stance had shifted.
After the mass pardon earlier this year, Wilson was freed from prison. Shortly afterward, the government said his release was “erroneous“ and he still had to serve time for the gun charges. Only later did the government try to convince Friedrich that Trump’s January pardon did apply to Wilson’s gun charges.
