Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump is convicted of child molestation

A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by President Donald Trump has been convicted of child molestation and other crimes after he tried to use an anticipated payout from the Trump administration to silence one victim, according to a Florida prosecutor's office.

A jury in Hernando County found Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, guilty by of five charges, including molesting a child under 12 and another under 16, as well as lewd and lascivious exhibition and transmitting harmful materials by electronic device to a minor, according to Walter Forgie ​​​​of the Fifth Judicial Circuit’s state attorney’s office.

Johnson faces life in prison when he is sentenced in March, the state attorney's office said. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

NPR first reported the news.

Johnson pleaded guilty in 2024 to nonviolent charges after he entered the U.S. Capitol through a broken window during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Court documents say Johnson, who referred to himself as “American Terrorist” and “Proud j6er,” engaged in “disorderly and disruptive conduct” for more than four hours.

He was among more than 1,500 people who were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Trump after he was re-elected in 2024. It was among his first acts as president.

And Johnson is one of several former Jan. 6 defendants facing criminal charges in separate cases after their pardons. One, Christopher P. Moynihan, 35, pleaded guilty this week to a harassment charge after he was accused of threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., according to The Associated Press.

Johnson was arrested in August. The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said in an affidavit that Discord messages showed Johnson sneaking to a child’s home to take him food and hang out with him.

He also told a child that “since he was pardoned for storming the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, and he was being awarded $10,000,000 as a result of being a ‘jan 6’er’ ... that he would be putting him in his ‘will’ to take any money he had left over,” according to the affidavit.

“This tactic was believed to be used to keep [the victim] from exposing what Andrew had done to him,” according to the affidavit.

Trump has discussed the possibility of compensating Jan. 6 rioters, but no one has received any payments. In May, the administration reached a settlement of just under $5 million with Ashli Babbitt’s family. An officer fatally shot her during the riot as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com