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At least two men who received presidential pardons for their roles in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are now facing separate, serious felony charges involving minors. The cases of David Paul Daniel in North Carolina and Andrew Quentin Taake in Texas highlight how presidential clemency for federal crimes has no bearing on distinct state or federal investigations.
David Paul Daniel, 37, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was pardoned by former President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to assaulting police officers during the Capitol riot. Court documents state Daniel helped lead a violent push against a barricaded Senate Wing door. However, his legal troubles persist as he now faces charges of child pornography and sexual exploitation. Evidence for these charges was discovered during a November 2023 search of his home related to the Jan. 6 investigation. According to a report from WFAE, the local police already had an open investigation into Daniel for an alleged sexual assault of a minor dating back to between 2015 and 2019. Despite this, Daniel's attorney is arguing the child pornography charges should be dropped, claiming the evidence was improperly found during the federal search.
In a separate case, Andrew Quentin Taake of Texas was also pardoned after being sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police with bear spray and a whip on Jan. 6. Shortly after his pardon, Taake was rearrested on a pre-existing warrant for allegedly soliciting a minor, stemming from a 2016 case in Texas. The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed his arrest, bringing a suspected child predator back into custody.
These situations underscore the limits of presidential pardons, which erase federal convictions but do not protect individuals from prosecution for other alleged crimes. The sweeping pardons issued by Trump shortly after he returned to office cleared the records of many involved in the Capitol attack, but as these cases show, they did not grant them immunity from accountability in the wider justice system. Both men remain entangled in legal proceedings that are completely independent of the Jan. 6 events for which they were convicted and pardoned.
