Mike Johnson Says Liberal Violence Is ‘Far More Prevalent’ After Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Is Arrested for Threatening Hakeem Jeffries
"So, let's not make it a partisan issue. You don't want me to go there," the House Speaker adds
Speaker Mike Johnson refused to condemn President Donald Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, even after one man tied to the Capitol attack was arrested for threatening to kill Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
The Louisiana congressman addressed the arrest of Christopher P. Moynihan during a press conference Tuesday, where he danced around calling Trump’s pardon for all rioters a “mistake” and instead suggested his rivals on the left have done more to incite political violence.
“The violence on the left is far more prevalent than the violence on the right. Don’t make me go through the list. You all know it,” Johnson said. “The assassination culture that’s been advanced now, this is the left in almost every case that is advancing this and not the right. So, let’s not make it a partisan issue. You don’t want me to go there.”
However, Johnson did make a point to denounce any “deranged individual” who may seek to harm an elected official.
“I will say this, anybody who threatens political violence against elected officials — or anyone else — should have the full weight and measure of the Department of Justice on their head,” Johnson also told reporters. “I trust that will happen. I hope it will. We are intellectually consistent about that obviously.”
Johnson’s remarks come after Moynihan was arrested over the weekend for allegedly sending threatening texts about the House Minority Leader on Friday.
Per a police report, Moynihan was arrested in Clinton, New York after he allegedly discussed Jeffries’ upcoming speaking engagement via text and wrote that the congressman “must be eliminated.” Police say Moynihan also wrote, “I will kill him for the future.”
In a statement following the arrest, Rep. Jeffries thanked the investigators “for their swift and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention to carry it out.”
Moynihan has since been charged with a felony count of making a terroristic threat.
He was previously sentenced to 21 months in prison back in February 2023 for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. However, he was among those who were pardoned by Trump during the first day of his second term in office.
==================================================
House Speaker "Poop Johnson"
==================================================
Pardoned Capitol rioter arrested on charge that he threatened to kill Hakeem Jeffries
[Iznogood: It's quite okay. Trump will pardon him AGAIN]
Holmes Lybrand, CNN
Tue, October 21, 2025 at 7:06 PM GMT+3·3 min read
In this photograph included in a statement of facts document by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Christopher Moynihan, seen at center in the gray hat, stands in the Senate Chamber during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Moynihan has been arrested after allegedly making threats against Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. - US District Court for the District of Columbia
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.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
No comments:
Post a Comment