Rioter pardoned Jan. 6 arrested for threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: Police
An upstate New York man who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his actions at the US Capitol on January 6. allegedly threatened to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York State Police said.
Christopher Moynihan, 34, of Clinton, was arrested Saturday and charged with making a terroristic threat, police said. He is the first pardoned Capitol rioter to be arrested for alleged political violence.
He appeared in Clinton City Court, where he was remanded to the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, police said.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance in Dutchess County State Supreme Court on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if he had hired an attorney.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries waits for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a photo opportunity at the Capitol on October 21, 2025.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement He said Tuesday that he is “grateful to state and federal authorities for their quick and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention of carrying it out.”
Moynihan was convicted of obstructing an official proceeding in 2022 after breaching a security perimeter and entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Footage included in a federal complaint shows Christopher Moynihan at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Department of Justice
Prosecutors said he entered the Senate Gallery, flipped through a notebook on a senator’s desk and took photos with his cellphone. During the riot, he said, “There has to be something here we can use against these —- bags,” according to prosecutors. Court documents from when he was charged included screenshots of a video showing Moynihan at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Moynihan was sentenced to nearly two years in prison in February 2023 before he and more than 1,500 others who had been convicted or otherwise charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot received a pardon hours after Trump took office.
