Man pardoned in U.S. Capitol riot pleads guilty to threatening Hakeem Jeffries

CLINTON, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man accused of threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pleaded guilty Thursday, a year after President Donald Trump pardoned him for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Christopher P. Moynihan, 35, also agreed to serve three years of probation. During a hearing in the town court in Clinton, New York, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge, and sentencing was set for April 2.

Moynihan’s public defender did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday night. A message also was left at an email address in public records for Moynihan. A phone number for Moynihan in public records was not in service.

Moynihan, of Pleasant Valley, New York, was accused of sending a text message to another person in October about Jeffries’ appearance in New York City that week.

“I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” Moynihan wrote, according to a report by a state police investigator. Moynihan also wrote that Jeffries “must be eliminated” and texted, “I will kill him for the future,” the police report says.

Moynihan was originally charged with a felony, making a terrorist threat, but pleaded to a lesser crime.

“Threats against elected officials are not political speech, they are criminal acts that strike at the heart of public safety and our democratic system,” Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi said in a statement.

Moynihan was sentenced to nearly 2 years in prison for joining a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In January 2025, he was among hundreds of convicted Capitol rioters who were pardoned on the Republican president’s first day back in the White House.

A spokesperson for Jeffries, a New York Democrat, did not immediately return an email message Thursday night.