Caffeinated Politics

There is a daunting set of data that I want my readers to be aware of in today’s column.

Scores of individuals who were granted clemency by Donald Trump have subsequently faced new criminal charges. A comprehensive study by Lawfare Media revealed that nearly 1 in 16 recipients of the sweeping January 6th blanket pardons have been arrested or convicted for separate offenses after walking free.

Perhaps most strikingly, five recipients of presidential clemency were arrested in connection with conduct that occurred at least in part subsequent to Trump’s freeing them from prison—meaning that Trump’s clemency order on the first day of his second term may have actively facilitated criminal conduct. These include the first inmate, below.

One of the most shameful is Andrew Paul Johnson, who was freed from prison as a result of the pardon in 2025, was convicted of five charges, including child molestation, in February 2026 and sentenced to life in prison. The criminal conduct for which he was convicted took place both before and after his pardon.

According to the FBI, Andrew Taake assaulted Capitol Police officers with pepper spray and a metal whip. He was sentenced to over six years in prison for his role in the insurrection. After Trump’s pardon, he was rearrested on previous charges of soliciting a minor.

David Daniel was part of the attempt to break through a barricaded Senate door and pleaded guilty to resisting police officers. He remained in custody after Trump’s pardon on possession of child sexual abuse material charges brought in 2024.

Shane Jason Woods pleaded guilty to assaulting police and a press photographer. After Trump’s pardon, Woods was convicted in April for multiple counts, including reckless homicide and driving under the influence in 2022. 

The makeup of these pardoned men all points to their sense of feeling that they are above the constraints of adhering to law-abiding norms in our society.

Ryan Nichols, who was charged with deadly conduct and harassment on May 10, 2026, after allegedly threatening a person with a gun in a church parking lot, underscores the depth of rot among these people. A CHURCH PARKING LOT.

Four of the Jan. 6 clemency recipients have been charged with possession of child pornography, as well as crimes such as online solicitation of a 15-year-old, secretly filming naked women in tanning beds, and sending explicit images to a 13-year-old online.

In 28 cases, Jan. 6 convicts have gotten into additional trouble because of guns. Several of these cases have involved law enforcement finding caches of weapons in the defendant’s possession during searches related to the Jan. 6 investigation. And in some cases—though not all—defendants have managed to convince either judges or the new administration that the charges are sufficiently related to Jan. 6 that if not quite covered by the pardon, they should be dropped anyway. In other instances, such cases have survived.

Finally, 51 cases involve something other than sex offenses, guns, or violence. At the low end, a large number of these cases involve intoxicated driving or some other misconduct associated with public drunkenness. At the more serious end are charges of child endangerment, conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, or stalking.

There’s a grim sort of symmetry to the growing list of January 6th defendants who were pardoned, celebrated, or politically sanctified — only to boomerang right back into jail for an entirely new batch of crimes. It’s almost poetic in the bleakest, most American way: the self‑styled patriots who insisted they were victims of tyranny keep proving, again and again, that the only tyrant they can’t escape is their own impulse to break the law. You can call it irony, but at this point it feels more like inevitability.

The pattern is unmistakable. And it makes a clear case for what I have argued for years about these seriously unmoored morons. January 6th wasn’t a one‑off moment of passion but simply the loudest chapter in their longer personal history of bad decisions. The mythology painted them as ordinary Americans pushed too far. The rap sheets tell a different story. They are pure white trash.

Look at how the cycle repeats. Some of these individuals barely made it a year before landing back in front of a judge. The pardon was supposed to be a second chance, a clean slate, a gesture of mercy. Instead, for many, it became a hall pass to resume the same reckless behavior that got them arrested in the first place. The ink on the paperwork wasn’t even dry before the next mugshot was taken. And it needs noting that these guys do not get better looking as they keep filing through the legal system and costing taxpayers money.

Another point I have made since 2021 is that none of this has to do with politics in the usual sense of the word. Rather, I argue, it is about temperament. The angry white men who stormed the Capitol were overwhelmingly individuals already steeped in grievance, impulsivity, conspiratorial thinking, and a deep suspicion of rules. When you combine that with the alpha-crazy-male-adrenaline-rush of being told you’re a hero, a soldier, a chosen defender of the republic, you don’t get rehabilitation. You get reinforcement. You get absurd people who believe the law is optional as long as they can wrap their defiance in a flag. And beat the law enforcement personnel with the pole on which the flag was raised.

So yes, the irony is thick as Confederate bumper stickers on rusted -out pickup trucks. The same yahoos who shouted about “law and order” have produced a steady stream of repeat offenders. The same people who claimed persecution now find themselves back in the same cells they once insisted they never belonged in. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not a setup. It’s simply the natural consequence of what happens when you mistake criminality for patriotism and then act surprised when the criminals keep behaving like criminals.