Pardoned Capitol rioter arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries

A man who was pardoned by President Trump after storming the U.S. Capitol in 2021 has been arrested on a charge that he threatened to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

New York State Police say Christopher Moynihan was arrested after they were advised by the FBI that he had made “threats to kill a member of Congress.” Court documents show his arrest came after he allegedly texted that he planned to kill Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House.

Moynihan, 34, was arraigned in local court in Clinton, N.Y. He was remanded to the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center “in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, a $30,000 bond, or an $80,000 partially secured bond.” He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.

He faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat.

In a statement Tuesday, Jeffries noted Moynihan was pardoned on Trump’s first day in office.

“Since the blanket pardon that occurred earlier this year, many of the criminals released have committed additional crimes throughout the country,” he said. “Unfortunately, our brave men and women in law enforcement are being forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned.”

Moynihan was sentenced in 2023 to 21 months incarceration, 36 months supervised release. He received a full pardon, along with more than 1,500 other defendants who were charged with crimes related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

On that day, Moynihan can be heard on a video captured inside the Senate floor saying, “There’s got to be something we can use against these f***ing scumbags.””

While many people had no record prior to committing crimes on Jan. 6, NPR identified dozens of defendants with prior convictions for crimes including rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking. That includes Matthew Huttle, who was shot and killed by law enforcement during a traffic stop in Indiana days after receiving a pardon.

Moynihan’s arrest comes amid rising threats to lawmakers. The Capitol Police told NPR in a statement in September that its agents were on track to work through roughly 14,000 threat assessment cases by the end of the year, a dramatic spike from case workloads in previous years.

NPR’s Sam Gringlas contributed to this report.