In news that anyone with a brain could have seen coming, Donald Trump pardoning hundreds of violent criminals has catastrophically backfired. That’s because, to nobody’s surprise, many of these people walked out of prison and went straight back to a life of crime.
Now, in a disgusting case that Trump must take some responsibility for, Andrew Paul Johnson, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, was found guilty on Tuesday of multiple child sexual abuse charges involving a child under 12.
Johnson contacted an 11-year-old boy on Discord after Trump released him and began what was described as an ”inappropriate” conversation. This escalated to Johnson sending the boy an iPhone and telling him to keep it a “secret”, so he could continue to manipulate him without his parents finding out.
NEW: Andrew Paul Johnson, a Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Donald Trump, was convicted Tuesday in Hernando County, Fla., on five state charges, including molesting a child under 12 and another under 16, as well as exposing himself.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 12, 2026
Police say Johnson tried to bribe one victim with… pic.twitter.com/ci4quWCat6
The boy reported that this escalated to three incidents of molestation between April and October 2024, in which Johnson crept into the child’s home without his parents’ knowledge.
Johnson was arrested in Tennessee in August and extradited to Florida, where he pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of child abuse. A jury didn’t believe him, convicting him on charges of molesting a child under 12 and another under 16, and lewd and lascivious exhibition. He’s now facing a possible sentence of life in prison.
“American terrorist”
Johnson was a major player in the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol, billing himself as an “American terrorist” and a “proud J6er”. Official reports indicate he was one of those who initially entered the building, smashing a window and urging other rioters to follow him into the building, yelling:
“We haven’t accomplished anything here! This door is still closed! We haven’t accomplished anything yet. … We need to go through that f**king door! We’re not done yet. We’re not just breaking and entering.”
So, naturally, as far as Trump was concerned, the man is an American hero, and one of his first acts on returning to office was to put this chomo back on the streets.
In a really sick twist, Johnson even attempted to leverage his popularity with Trump as a way to bribe the boy to keep quiet, with the affidavit saying that “since he was pardoned for storming the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, and he was being awarded $10,000,000 as a result of being a ‘jan 6’er’ … that he would be putting him in his ‘will’ to take any money he had left over.”
Sentencing is coming at a later date, though Walter Forgie, chief assistant state attorney for Florida’s fifth judicial circuit, confirmed that life in prison is on the table. So great work, Mr President, who could have foreseen that releasing violent lunatics back onto the street would catastrophically backfire?
