Pardoned WA Jan. 6 rioter may be headed back to Tri-Cities despite new conviction

KENNEWICK – A Pasco man pardoned for his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots has been found guilty of threatening to blow up a federal building and on weapons charges related to trying to enter former President Barack Obama’s Washington, D.C., home in 2023.

Taylor Taranto, 39, could be headed back to the Tri-Cities by the end of the week though.

He has been held in the D.C. Metropolitan Jail since July 2023 after he was arrested with guns in his van while livestreaming himself attempting to get into the former president’s Kalorama neighborhood home.

The verdict came after a four-day bench trial in federal court.

U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols could be moving quickly to release Taranto on bond by the end of the week due to the length of time he’s been in jail and his lack of criminal history, according to WUSA9 reporter Jordan Fischer, who was in the courtroom reporting on the trial.

While he could face up to five years in prison, Taranto has been held without bail for the past two years due to being considered a potential threat to the community. Nichols has asked his attorneys to file a motion for his release on bond ahead of a sentencing date, according to court documents. That motion and a response from prosecutors could be considered as early as Thursday, court dockets show.

The sentencing hearing has not been set. It’s unclear if prosecutors will ask for Taranto to be sentenced for longer than the amount of time he has spent in jail.

His arrest came after a warrant was issued for now pardoned Jan. 6 charges because of a number of threats he had been making online to lawmakers.

He also threatened to use his van as a bomb to blow up a federal building and claimed in private messages that he had a contract to kill former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to court documents.

While President Donald J. Trump pardoned Taranto, along with 1,500 other rioters, for his role in the 2021 insurrection, Nichols denied Taranto’s attempt to drop charges for the guns found in his van during the D.C. arrest and the bombing threat.

Taranto also remains a co-defendant in a civil lawsuit for the wrongful death of a D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer that he is accused of helping attack inside the Capitol building.

Taranto is a U.S. Navy veteran and a former webmaster for the Franklin County Republican Party. His attorneys have argued that he suffers from PTSD and, if released, needs to travel to a Puget Sound area veterans clinic for treatment.

Local Republican Party officials previously told the Herald that they had cut ties with Taranto months before his 2023 arrest due to his erratic behavior.

Arrest for threats

When Taranto was arrested, investigators found two guns in his van that he was not registered to be carrying, along with a significant amount of ammunition and multiple cellphones.

A charge for a high-capacity magazine was dropped after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the law enforcing the ban on those magazines was unconstitutional.

Taranto was allegedly in Obama’s neighborhood in response to a conspiracy theory posted by Trump on social media, which listed the address, according to court documents.

His attorneys claim Taranto’s statements about “trying to get a shot” were about filming.

He has claimed he is a self-styled satirical journalist. On Tuesday, however, a video was introduced into evidence that prosecutors say showed Taranto admitting that his claim of being a journalist was a ruse, according to Fischer.

Trump later denounced Taranto’s actions and said the two had never met, after a picture circulated online of Taranto posing with a cardboard cutout of Trump. That photo was from a Franklin County Republican Party meeting.

In the days before his arrest, Taranto allegedly had made a series of threats on livestreams and through messaging apps against former Vice President Harris, and two members of congress for their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation. He had been traveling back and forth between Pasco and D.C. to attend various protests, court documents said.

Taranto has claimed he was trying to gather evidence about a Jan. 6 cover-up.

Wrongful death

of officer

His co-defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit, D.C. Chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, admitted to “scuffling” with an officer during the riot at his sentencing. He allegedly hit the officer with a heavy metal cane handed to him by Taranto.

A review panel ruled that Officer Jeffrey Smith suffered a concussion which led to his suicide after returning to duty. They said the injuries suffered in the riot were the “sole and direct cause” of his death when awarding his widow death benefits.

Walls-Kaufman was later pardoned after being sentenced to two months in jail.

His widow is suing the two men for $7 million in damages.

The civil trial is proceeding against Kaufman, but paused for Taranto until after his sentencing.