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President Donald Trump has granted new pardons to two Jan. 6 defendants who face charges in other matters.
Suzanne Kaye, charged on Jan. 6, was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for allegedly threatening to shoot FBI agents in social media posts.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department said that on January 31, 2021, the day before she met with FBI agents over a report that she was at the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 riot, she posted videos on social media in which she said she would “shoot” the FBI agents if they came to her home. The FBI became aware of Kaye’s social media posts on February 8, 2021 and arrested Kaye at his home in Florida on February 17, 2021.
A White House official told Fox News Digital that Kaye was prone to stress-induced seizures and suffered one while the jury was reading its verdict in 2023. The official said it was a case of disfavored political speech, which is protected by the First Amendment.
TRUMP FORGIVES ALMOST EVERY JANUARY. 6 DEFENDANTS ON INAUGURATION DAY
On January 6, President Donald Trump granted another pardon to a defendant to cover up gun-related charges. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
U.S. Special Prosecutor Ed Martin published an article on the pardon on Saturday, thanking Trump in an article on X.
“Biden’s DOJ targeted Suzanne Kaye for her social media posts – and she was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. President Trump is undoing the damage caused by Biden’s weaponization of DOJ, so the healing can begin,” Martin wrote.
On January 6, defendant Daniel Wilson remained incarcerated after Trump pardoned convicted rioters because he had pleaded guilty to gun-related charges. A White House official told Fox News Digital that the president made the decision to grant Wilson an additional pardon because the guns were discovered during a search of Wilson’s home related to the Capitol riot.
Despite being included in Trump’s sweeping pardon of the January 6 defendants on January 20, 2025, Wilson remained incarcerated on the firearms charge and was scheduled to be released in 2028. Prior to his sentencing on the January 6-related charges, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison, Wilson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of an unregistered firearm.
While the Trump administration’s Justice Department initially said gun-related charges should not be considered as part of the Jan. 6 pardon, it later changed course, citing “more clarity,” without going into detail about the cause of the change.
A scene from the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana, file/AP Photo)
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In his initial pardon, Trump said that, pursuant to his authority under Article II, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, he was commuting the sentences of individuals “convicted of offenses relating to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” That pardon included the charges filed against Wilson on Jan. 6, but not those related to firearms.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee involved in the Wilson case, rejected the expanded definition of what exactly Trump was pardoning, saying it stretched the limits of the order too far. In his view, Friedrich criticized the use of the phrase “related to” in Trump’s initial pardon to broaden its meaning.
“The text surrounding the pardon makes clear that ‘related to’ means a specific factual relationship between the conduct underlying a given offense and what occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Friedrich wrote in his opinion.
An appeals court later upheld his objections, saying Wilson should remain behind bars during the appeal process.
Rioters attempt to break through a police barrier on January 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, file)
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Wilson previously identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers militia and the Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia, according to Politico.
“Dan Wilson is a good man. After more than seven months of wrongful imprisonment, he is relieved to be reunited with his loved ones,” Wilson’s attorneys, George Pallas and Carol Stewart, told Politico in a statement. “This act of mercy not only sets him free, but also shines a light on the excesses that have divided this nation.”
Fox News Digital has contacted the Justice Department and Wilson’s legal team for comment.
