Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Charged Over Threats Against Officer

A man whose Jan. 6 case vanished with Donald Trump's return to the White House is back in court—this time over what he allegedly said, not what he did, reports NBC News. Jake Lang, a pardoned Capitol rioter and self-described pro-Trump influencer, has been charged in DC Superior Court with a misdemeanor for threatening a Metropolitan Police commander he confronted at a Jan. 6 anniversary event this year. Prosecutors say Lang approached Cmdr. Jason Bagshaw, whom he battled in the Capitol's lower west tunnel in 2021, and delivered a string of menacing lines, including that Bagshaw should be "put down like a dead dog," subjected to a "public execution," and dragged out "by his ankles" and tossed into the Potomac.

Lang pleaded not guilty at a Saturday arraignment and is under a stay-away order, with a status hearing set for March 24. Lang was separately charged last month in Minnesota with a felony over allegedly destroying an ice sculpture protesting ICE, reports the AP. Lang, whose actions on Jan. 6 were widely recorded, was once held in pretrial detention on evidence a judge called "very strong," but he was never tried before Trump pardoned him along with more than 1,500 other defendants. His attorney declined to comment; federal prosecutors did, too.