Pardoned Capitol rioter arrested on charge that he threatened to kill Hakeem Jeffries
By Holmes Lybrand
(CNN) — A New York man who was convicted of charges related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack was arrested Sunday on a charge that he threatened to kill Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
According to New York State Police, an anonymous source told the FBI that the man, Christopher Moynihan, had said on Friday that “in a few days, he would kill Congressman Jeffries in New York City for ‘the future,’” court records say.
Moynihan was previously sentenced to nearly two years in prison for his participation in the Capitol attack after being convicted of obstructing an official proceeding, disorderly conduct in a restricted area, and other, similar charges.
President Donald Trump pardoned Moynihan — along with others convicted of January 6 offenses — earlier this year.
In a statement Tuesday, Jeffries thanked law enforcement for apprehending Moynihan before criticizing Trump’s “blanket pardon” of January 6 defendants.
“Threats of violence will not stop us from showing up, standing up and speaking up for the American people,” Jeffries wrote.
A New York judge ruled that Moynihan will stay in prison while awaiting a hearing Thursday to determine whether he can be released pending trial on a charge of making a terroristic threat. No attorneys are listed for Moynihan in the New York case and CNN has attempted to reach family members.
The anonymous source told the FBI they suspected Moynihan of recent drug abuse as well as an “increase” in “homicidal ideations,” according to New York State Police.
Prosecutors say that Moynihan, in a text message sent to an anonymous source on Friday, wrote that “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live” and “Even if I am hated he must be eliminated.” He is also accused of sending a text that said, “I will kill him for the future.”
On January 6, 2021, Moynihan entered the Senate chamber and rummaged through pages in a notebook on one of the senator’s desks, taking photos of the pages with his phone. He was not accused of attacking police or acting violently that day.
Before being sentenced in the Capitol attack case, Moynihan’s attorneys told the Washington, DC, judge presiding that their client “has struggled with addiction to opiates” and that past misdemeanor convictions of possessing a controlled substance and petty larceny “all stem from a time when he was in the throes of that addiction.”
The DC judge recommended Moynihan receive mental health and drug abuse treatment while serving his term for the January 6 convictions.
Attorneys, in asking for a lighter sentence from the judge, wrote that prior to his entering the Capitol, “Mr. Moynihan had grown increasingly engaged in politics during the Trump presidency and spent much of his spare time perusing political content on the internet.”
Law enforcement agencies have been on edge over threats against political and public figures in the wake of several high-profile assassinations, including recently right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, who was brutally shot and killed during a campus debate event this summer.
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