GRANITE BAY, Calif. — A Granite Bay father has been arrested and since released on bail in connection with the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
45-year-old Dane Christoffer Thompson faces seven charges, including “Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds” and “Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers.”
But with President-Elect Trump saying he’ll pardon January 6 insurrectionists, why is the U.S. Department of Justice pursuing new cases?
ABC10 spoke with a former federal prosecutor, who is not connected to the case, for insight.
"For sure, there will be people from January 6 that will be pardoned,” said Tom Johnson, attorney and former federal prosecutor. "The President of the United States has almost - almost - limitless authority to pardon."
President-Elect Trump has said he plans to pardon people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol. For one example, in a March 2024 Truth Social post, he wrote, “My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!”
So then is it a waste of the DOJ’s time to pursue new cases?
“I don't really see it as a waste of time in the sense that you could predict what the President is going to do. I think that's very difficult to say. No one really knows how many people will be pardoned. No one really knows whether it will be a blanket pardon or whether people will be chosen individually,” Johnson said. “Some people were there just trespassing, and then - just ratcheting it up from there - some people trespassed and destroyed property. Do those people get pardoned? Some people trespassed, destroyed property and assaulted…There's 1,500 cases. Each person will get their own individual look, it seems, from this president.”
Not knowing exactly how and when the pardoning will happen, he says, federal authorities are continuing on with their jobs.
“They have a warrant for somebody, a case has been filed. The next step is to arrest the person, to begin proceedings. That doesn't mean that President Trump cannot pardon this person when he takes office in January,” Johnson said.
The same uncertainty goes for the other accused and convicted Insurrection participants from Northern California. In addition to Thompson of Granite Bay, there is Jorge Riley of Sacramento, Kyle Travis Colton of Citrus Heights, Tommy Allan of Rocklin, Sean McHugh of Auburn, Ricky Willden of Oakhurst and Valerie Ehrke of Colusa County.
"People may like it, they may dislike it. At the end of the day, the Constitution provides that this President has a tremendous amount of power, and so it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out,” Johnson said.
Thompson ran for a spot on the Eureka Union School Board in Placer County earlier this month and lost. In his candidate statement, he said he’s an electrical engineer with two elementary-age kids in the district and a wife involved in the local schools.
According to the FBI and U.S. DOJ, Thompson was also storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
He had been previously unidentified, known to the FBI as AFO # 292. AFO stands for “assault on a federal officer.”
Court documents say the FBI special agent identified Thompson from photos posted online and travel history.
The criminal complaint says he grabbed a bike rack from an officer, who had been using it as a barricade, and later lunged at officers. Prosecutors say he was also part of the mob trying to push through a police line and into the Capitol building.
Thompson was arrested Friday and has since been released on $25,000 bail.
He was arraigned Monday with seven charges, including “Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds” and “Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers.”
A U.S. President can issue a pardon - essentially clearing someone’s record - and commutations—reducing someone’s sentence.
During his first term, President Trump did not use the presidential pardon often. Altogether, then-President Trump granted some form of legal forgiveness to fewer than 250 people.
President Barack Obama offered clemency to more than 1,900 people convicted of federal crimes.
Attorney Tom Johnson says Biden so far is falling somewhere in the middle.
A president also has the power to pardon someone before they’re even charged, Johnson said.
That means Trump will have the power to pardon everyone convicted in the Capitol riots plus everyone whose case is in process as well as those who have not yet been identified.
“How many and for what - that's for us to watch and learn,” Johnson said.
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