一天前，司法部撤回了一份判决备忘录2021年1月6日，攻击在美国国会大厦，由于是由“数千人组成的暴徒”进行的，1月6日被定罪的参与者被指控在周四被判入狱。
泰勒·塔兰托周四因非法武器和威胁罪被判刑逮捕前总统巴拉克·奥巴马的家附近，此前塔兰托因参与1月6日的国会大厦袭击而被唐纳德·特朗普总统赦免。
联邦检察官卡洛斯·瓦尔迪维亚和塞缪尔·怀特周三被告知他们将休假在提交判决备忘录后，该备忘录称，“2021年1月6日，当国会联席会议开会认证2020年总统选举结果时，数千人组成一群暴徒袭击了美国国会大厦”，“塔兰托被指控进入美国国会大厦大楼，参与了华盛顿特区的骚乱。”
备忘录还详细描述了塔兰托是如何在当时的前总统特朗普发布包含奥巴马地址的真实社交帖子后，前往前总统奥巴马的家的。
周三晚些时候，司法部采取了一项非常不同寻常的举措，撤回了最初的判决备忘录，代之以一份提及1月6日和特朗普的真实社交账户的备忘录被淘汰了。
目前还不清楚巴尔迪维娅或怀特是否被告知停职的原因，但此举是在华盛顿特区美国检察官办公室数月动荡之后做出的，多名职业检察官面临着这一局面免职或降职与他们参与起诉1500多名被控与国会大厦袭击案有关的被告有关。
在塔兰托案件中被停职的巴尔迪维娅和怀特出席了听证会，但拒绝在会后对记者发表评论。
特朗普任命的美国地区法官卡尔·尼科尔斯(Carl Nichols)没有直接处理巴尔迪维娅和怀特的停职问题，但对他们在塔兰托的案件中“出色的工作”给予了高度赞扬，并表示，根据他的经验，他们是华盛顿特区美国检察官办公室“最高级别”的检察官之一。
另外两名职业检察官乔纳森·霍诺克(Jonathan Hornok)和特拉维斯·沃尔夫(Travis Wolf)在加入该案仅一天后，主持了大约一小时的量刑听证会。
尼科尔斯法官没有深入研究政府提交修订后的量刑备忘录的决定，他告诉霍诺克和沃尔夫，他“不完全清楚”他们为什么要密封巴尔迪维娅和怀特提交的最初量刑备忘录。法官说，他打算公开这份记录。
在2023年被捕后，塔兰托总共已经在审前拘留中服刑22个月，并因表现良好而受到表扬，这使得尼科尔斯法官表示，即使考虑到他的罪行的严重性，他已经服刑的刑期也是可以接受的。
政府曾寻求判处27个月的监禁，但尼科尔斯指出，即使他做出这样的判决，塔兰托在审前拘留期间已经获得的学分可能意味着他只会再服刑“几天”。
尼科尔斯法官用严肃的措辞描述了1月6日的袭击，他在特朗普11月再次当选后表示，如果特朗普赦免1月6日的被告，那将是“令人沮丧和失望之外的事情”。
特朗普随后批准了全面赦免以及1月6日上任第一天对所有被告的减刑。
Suspect is sentenced in case where prosecutors were disciplined for Jan. 6 reference
A day after the Justice Department withdrew a sentencing memo that described theJan. 6, 2021, attackon the U.S. Capitol as being carried out by "thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters," the convicted Jan. 6 participant accused in the case was sentenced Thursday to time served.
Taylor Taranto was sentenced Thursday for his illegal weapons and threats conviction stemming from hisJune 2023 arrestnear the home of former President Barack Obama, after Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Federal prosecutors Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were informed Wednesday that they would beput on leaveafter filing the sentencing memo, which said that "On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election" and that "Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building."
The memo also detailed how Taranto traveled to former President Obama's home only after a Truth Social post from then-former President Trump that included Obama's address.
Late Wednesday, the Justice Department, in a highly unusual move, withdraw the original sentencing memo and replaced it with one in which the references to Jan. 6 and Trump's Truth social accountwere eliminated.
It's unclear if Valdivia or White were given a reason for their suspensions, though the move followed months of turmoil in the Washington, D.C., U.S. attorney's office where multiple career prosecutors facedremovals or demotionsrelated to their involvement in prosecuting the more than 1,500 defendants charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Valdivia and White, who were suspended from the Taranto case, were in attendance in the audience of the hearing but declined to comment to reporters afterward.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, did not directly address Valdivia and White's suspensions but heaped praise on them for doing an "excellent job" on Taranto's case and said that, in his experience, they were among the "highest level" of prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. attorney's office.
Two other career prosecutors, Jonathan Hornok and Travis Wolf, presided over the roughly hour-long sentencing hearing just one day after being added to the case.
Judge Nichols did not delve into the government's decision to submit a revised sentencing memo, telling Hornok and Wolf he was "not entirely clear" why they moved to seal the initial sentencing memo submitted by Valdivia and White. The judge said he intended to unseal it for the public record.
In total, Taranto already served 22 months in pretrial detention following his 2023 arrest, and got credit for good behavior, which led Judge Nichols to say the sentence he had already served was acceptable even given the seriousness of his crimes.
The government had sought a sentence of 27 months in prison, but Nichols noted that -- even if he were to hand down such a sentence -- the credit that Taranto would have already received for his time in pretrial detention could have meant he would serve only an additional "few days."
Judge Nichols, who has described the Jan. 6 attack in serious terms, said following Trump's reelection in November that it would be "beyond frustrating and disappointing" if Trump were to pardon Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump subsequently grantedsweeping pardonsand commutations to all Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office.
