House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on October 16, 2025.
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A man who was pardoned by President Trump following the 2021 storming of the US Capitol has been arrested on charges that he threatened to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
New York State Police say Christopher Moynihan was arrested after the FBI told them he had “threatened to kill a member of Congress.” Court documents show his arrest came after he allegedly wrote a message saying he planned to kill Jeffries, the top House Democrat.
Moynihan, 34, was arraigned in local court in Clinton, New York. He was remanded to the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center “in lieu of $10,000 bail, $30,000 bail or $80,000 partially secured bail.” He is due in court on Thursday.
He has been charged with making a terrorist threat.
IN statement On Tuesday, Jeffries noted that Moynihan was pardoned on Trump's first day in office.
“Since the full pardons that occurred earlier this year, many of the released criminals have committed additional crimes across the country,” he said. “It is unfortunate that our brave men and women in law enforcement are forced to spend their time protecting our communities from these violent people who should never have been pardoned.”
Moynihan was sentenced in 2023 – 21 months in prison, 36 months in custody. He received a full pardon along with more than 1,500 other defendants charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.
On video taken on the Senate floor that day, Moynihan can be heard saying, “There's got to be something we can use against these damn scumbags.”
Although many people had no information prior to the crimes committed on January 6, NPR has identified dozens of defendants with prior convictions. for crimes including rape, sexual abuse of minors, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking. That includes Matthew Huttle, who was shot and killed by law enforcement during a traffic stop in Indiana days after receiving a pardon.
Moynihan's arrest comes amid growing threats against lawmakers. Capitol Police told NPR in a statement in September that its agents are on track to work roughly 14,000 threat assessment cases by the end of the year, a sharp jump from the caseload in previous years.
NPR's Sam Greenglass reports.
