WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who was identified by online sleuths nearly two years ago but wasn’t arrested until he showed up outside the home of former President Barack Obama with two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his van was ordered detained until trial on Wednesday.
Taylor Taranto of Washington state currently faces four misdemeanor charges in connection with the Capitol attack, but federal prosecutors have indicated more charges could be on the way. Taranto has been living in his van, which was often parked outside of the D.C. jail where many Jan. 6 defendants are being held, for the past couple of months.
June 30, 202301:55
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui had questioned whether, given that Taranto had only faced misdemeanor charges, he could be detained only on the basis of presenting a risk to the public. Faruqui said there were a number of factors weighing in favor of releasing Taranto pre-trial, but said he was ultimately concerned that Taranto does pose a threat to the public.
“We as a country have failed you,” Faruqui said, referencing Taranto’s service in the military and the PTSD he’s suffered from in the years since. “Now you have to pay the price for our failure. … At every turn, it seems, you get let down and that’s not fair.”
Faruqui said the “temperature is way too high in our political discussions” and that it was “truly heartbreaking” that Taranto had to be locked up pretrial. Taranto was identified in August 2021 after a facial recognition search of photos of him at the Capitol turned up photos of him posting with a cardboard cutout of Trump. He showed up outside Obama’s residence last month after Trump posted a screenshot that included Obama’s address on his social media platform. Taranto reposted it and wrote on Telegram: “We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s!”
Taranto was recording himself when he was near the Obamas’ residence, talking about how he was searching for tunnels that connected their home to Tony Podesta’s.
When he was arrested near Obama’s home, authorities found two guns and 400 rounds of ammunition.
Taranto had, weeks earlier, shown up to the sentencing of David Walls-Kaufman, who was his co-defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the widow of an officer who died by suicide after the Capitol attack. Both men deny playing a role in the officer’s death.
Faruqui said he was worried that there could be “catastrophic” consequences if Taranto was allowed out and did the things that Taranto thought elected officials were telling him to do.
Faruqui, while not explicitly referencing Trump, made clear that he thought that the officials who filled Taranto’s head with conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election bore moral responsibility for the situation.
“Where are the people telling you do things?” Faruqui asked Taranto, rhetorically. “Where are they? They’re not here.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
