In what’s rapidly developing into a news event on par with “dog bites man”, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter has confirmed he will plead guilty to sex crimes involving children. I’m shocked. Shocked! Well… not that shocked.
David Daniel, who admitted to assaulting law enforcement while leading a “violent push” to enter the US Capitol, and was subsequently pardoned by Donald Trump, has signed a plea agreement in federal court in the Western District of North Carolina, relating to charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing child pornography.
The court documents detail that in 2015 and 2016, Daniel “attempted to and did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce a minor … to engage in sexually explicit material for the purposes of producing any visual depiction of such conduct.” It is also confirmed that one of the two children in question “had not yet attained 12 years of age”.
Is it actually everyone that was pardoned at this point? I’ve actually lost count now, absolutely disgusting!
— Claire Holmes #JusticeForBritney(@ItsClaireBaby) April 15, 2026
It’s unclear what the terms of Daniels’ plea deal are, though it seems likely he’s headed behind bars for a substantial amount of time. In a somewhat satisfying twist, it appears Daniels’ crimes against children only came to law enforcement’s attention due to Jan 6, presumably after he was arrested and they forensically analyzed his electronic devices.
Birds of a feather flock together
As you are probably aware, there were an unusually high number of pedophiles amongst the Jan. 6 rioters, all of whom were pardoned by Trump.
Prominent cases include Andrew Paul Johnson, who returned to abusing kids after Trump’s pardon and has now been returned to prison for a life sentence; Daniel Tocci, who was discovered with over 100,000 images of child abuse on his devices; and Andrew Taak, who was arrested for online solicitation of a minor.
Johnson’s case has the particularly vile twist of him attempting to bribe the young boy he abused with a supposed Jan. 6 settlement money he’d be getting from Trump, indicating he was willing to use his pardon as leverage to abuse kids.
These are only the ones that made the news, and a December 2025 analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington identified at least 33 pardoned individuals rearrested, charged, or sentenced for other crimes overall, including at least 6 for child sex crimes (ranging from sexual assault/molestation to child pornography possession/production).
It’s worth wondering why so many pedophiles were willing to put their futures on the line on Jan 6. to try and violently overturn the results of the 2020 election. After all, in 2020, Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein were known, but the files hadn’t been released, and it wasn’t public knowledge just how close the two men were.
I guess these guys just had some kind of sixth sense that told them that Trump was their man, and they should put the future, freedom, and dignity on the line by using violence to overturn the democratic will of the American people? I guess we’ll never know for sure.
