January 6 rioter who was pardoned by Trump arrested for child sexual abuse

Source: The Guardian

A man who took part in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol and was pardoned by Donald Trump earlier this year has been arrested on multiple child sexual abuse charges in Florida, according to local authorities.

The man, identified as 44-year-old Andrew Paul Johnson, was taken into custody in August in Tennessee and extradited to Florida where, according to arrest records, he faces charges of lewd and lascivious child molestation of a child under 12, lewd and lascivious child molestation of a child between 12 and 16, as well as lewd and lascivious exhibition, and transmission of material harmful to a minor.

…A probable cause affidavit alleges that in July, the Hernando county sheriff’s office received a report that “two juveniles had fallen victim to lewd and lascivious acts over a many-month span.” The report states that officers spoke with the mother of one of the children, who said that she discovered that Johnson, who was described as her ex-boyfriend who formerly lived in the house, had been sending “inappropriate” Discord messages to her son. The woman said she asked her son about the messages and also asked if Johnson had “done or said anything inappropriate” to which she said her son told her “that between April 1 2024 and October 2024” Johnson had “molested him three times”, beginning when he was 11 years old.

The report also alleges that Johnson told the child that “he was pardoned for storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and he was being awarded $10,000,000 as a result of being a ‘jan 6er’” and that he would be “putting him in his will to take any money he had left over”. Investigators state that “this tactic was believed to be used to keep” the child “from exposing what Andrew had done to him”. Investigators state that “this tactic was believed to be used to keep” the child “from exposing what Andrew had done to him”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/19/january-6-rioter-arrested-child-sexual-abuse-crimes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other