Jan 6er Pardoned by Trump Sentenced to Life for Child Sex Abuse — Tried to Bribe Victims

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File

One of the January 6 rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump will still spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was convicted of sexually abusing two middle school children.

In 2024, Andrew Paul Johnson pleaded guilty to multiple nonviolent counts related to breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was sentenced to one year in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release, according to a report by NPR. But after just a few months behind bars, Johnson was released when Trump issued a mass pardon for the rioters on the first day of his second term in January 2025.

Johnson celebrated his release in a social media post, writing that he was “Free! At last!” and thanking Trump, adding that he “never lost faith you would do the right thing!”

According to NPR, Johnson met a woman who lived in Brooksville, Florida at a political rally in 2023 (the names of the victims and their parents are omitted to protect their identities), who let him stay on her couch. At his trial, the woman testified that Johnson had been working as a handyman and she believed he could help with repairs around her house.

The woman’s son testified that he was just 11 years old when the abuse began, saying that he had fallen asleep while watching a “scary movie” and then when he woke up in the morning, “he was touching me — I felt him touching me in my private area.”

The boy testified that later that year, he awoke to Johnson touching him again and that he was “too nervous” and “scared” to tell what happened, and that Johnson had told him not to tell anyone.

After Johnson was pardoned and released from prison, he returned to the boy’s mother and began abusing him again, including using the game Roblox and messaging app Discord to send him messages, sometimes with sexual content.

He also abused the boy’s best friend, a 12-year-old girl. Both children testified that the abuse they experienced included Johnson exposing himself to them multiple times, making explicit sexual comments, and physically sexually abusing them.

The boy’s mother noticed a change in his behavior and then found some of the Discord messages Johnson had sent. When she asked the children about the messages, they told her what happened, and she called the police. Johnson was arrested just seven months after he was released from prison for the Jan. 6 offenses.

Police investigating the case reported that Johnson had told the children he expected to get millions of dollars as restitution money from the Trump administration for his Jan. 6 case and would share the money with them if they kept quiet.

In February, a jury in Hernando County, Florida found Johnson guilty of lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years of age, lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim 12 years of age or older but less than 16 years of age, two counts of lewd or lascivious exhibition, and transmission of material harmful to a minor by electronic device.

On Thursday, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison.

A growing list of other Jan. 6 defendants have found themselves on the wrong side of the law since being pardoned, including several for violent offenses like assaulting women and threatening law enforcement officers and elected officials. One man was notably arrested just one day after he was pardoned for gun charges.

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