Officials disclosed the position in new court filings.
President Donald Trump’s pardons of people charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol cover cases brought against two men after their homes were searched as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in newly filed court documents.
Daniel Ball, one of the people who were pardoned, was
arrested before he could be released on a warrant for being a felon and possessing a gun and ammunition. Attorneys for Ball argued that Trump’s pardons covered the illegal possession charges because they came as a result of a search done as part of the Jan. 6 probe.
The DOJ said in a brief filing on Feb. 20 that it agreed.
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a), the United States hereby moves to dismiss the indictment pending against the defendant, Daniel Charles Ball, with prejudice,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Sara C. Sweeney
wrote. “The United States cites to the Executive Order dated January 20, 20251, Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, as the reason for this dismissal.”
Trump
pardoned some 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants shortly after he took office. His proclamation
said that he granted pardons for offenses “relating to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
That covers offenses that prosecutors charged based on evidence discovered during searches done as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, defense lawyers have said in motions.
The DOJ recently
opposed one such motion, made by lawyers for Edward Kelley. Government lawyers said that Kelley’s conduct, plotting to kill FBI agents, “was unrelated in both time and place to the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
That was before the DOJ issued the filing in Ball’s case.
In a separate filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the DOJ said that Elias Nick Costianes Jr., who is serving a prison term for illegally possessing guns and ammunition while being a user of illegal drugs, should be released.
“The United States agrees that the President pardoned him, he should be immediately released from custody in connection with this case, his sentence should be stayed, and this Court should resolve his motion on an expedited basis,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Philip A. Selden
said. “Because the President’s pardon has mooted Mr. Costianes’s appeal, the Court should also vacate his judgment of conviction.”
Lawyers for Costianes then
asked the appeals court to order officials to release Costianes and vacate the judgment against him.
The courts handling the cases against Ball and Costianes have not yet ruled on the government filings.
In a third related case, of a man who was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to taking part in the Capitol breach and gun charges in Kentucky, DOJ lawyers
said that the pardon for Daniel Edwin Wilson does not cover Wilson’s possession of the unregistered gun and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person.
In a filing lodged a few days later, though, lawyers for Wilson
said that at their request, “the government has agreed to take another look at the defendant’s legal situation.” The motion sought an extension of time for the date on which Wilson has been ordered to surrender.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich rejected the motion. She cited her earlier ruling, entered on Feb. 7, that concluded “the plain language of the President’s January 20, 2025, pardon does not extend to the defendant’s Western District of Kentucky firearm convictions.”
