By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department placed two Washington-based prosecutors on leave a day after they described the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol as a “riot” carried out by a “mob,” according to four people familiar with the matter, The Washington Post reports.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were suspended hours after filing a sentencing memo in the case of Taylor Taranto, a Washington state man linked to the Capitol attack who now faces sentencing for unrelated weapons charges. The filing also noted that Taranto showed up armed outside former President Barack Obama’s home in 2023 after Donald Trump posted the address online.
The document was quickly withdrawn from public court records and replaced with a new version signed by two different prosecutors, removing all references to Jan. 6, Trump’s post, and the suspended attorneys.
A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, who declined to discuss personnel matters, said in a statement, “We take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously … without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”
The suspensions come amid a broader purge of prosecutors who handled Jan. 6 cases. Trump, in one of his first acts after returning to the White House, pardoned hundreds of participants in the attack and dismissed pending charges.
Taranto, 39, was convicted earlier this year of making false threats and illegally possessing firearms and ammunition after live-streaming himself in 2023 threatening to bomb government buildings and hunt for tunnels near Obama’s home. Valdivia and White had recommended a 27-month prison sentence before they were placed on leave.
