The number of president’s supporters accused of committing new crimes after Donald Trump pardoned them for their roles in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack recently increased to at least five.
Ryan Nichols, 35, became the latest such Capitol attacker on 10 May, when authorities in Harleton, Texas, say he threateningly displayed a handgun to a person with whom he was arguing in a church parking lot.
Nichols in November 2023 had pleaded guilty in connection with the insurrection at the Capitol from Trump supporters after his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden after the 2020 election. Among other things, he acknowledged attacking officers with pepper spray and making a video during the riot in which he said, “It’s going to be violent and … if you are asking, ‘Is Ryan Nichols going to bring violence? Yes, Ryan Nichols is going to bring violence.’”
A federal judge later sentenced Nichols to five years and three months in prison. But Nichols was freed early when he was unconditionally pardoned along with 1,500 other participants on the first day of Trump’s second presidency in January 2025.
Then, on 11 May, the sheriff’s office of Texas’ Harrison county – which includes Harleton – said its deputies encountered Nichols one day earlier while responding to a complaint about “a person reaching for a firearm during a dispute outside the church”. Investigators learned Nichols had confronted someone in the church’s parking lot and continued doing so even after that person tried to leave, a sheriff’s office statement said.
The alleged victim reported turning away from the confrontation and trying to usher his family towards their car while asking Nichols to go away. The victim alleged that he eventually turned around to face Nichols, who then raised his shirt up, showed a gun and wrapped his hand around the weapon’s grip.
“The victim advised that he was in fear for his life due to this action,” and deputies arrested Nichols on a count of deadly conduct, the sheriff’s office said in its statement.
He was also booked on unrelated warrants alleging harassment. County jail records show Nichols was released two days later on bond in the amount of $8,000.
Nichols in April 2025 declared his intent to run for a seat in Congress. However, as the Texas news outlet KLTV reported, Nichols later announced he was withdrawing from the race.
“My heart is in the right place,” he said at the time. “But I do not have the ability to properly lead this country.”
A database maintained by the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) first published in December listed more than 30 people who attacked the Capitol who were pardoned by Trump, but face criminal charges in other cases.
Of those on that list prior to Nichols’ arrest, four had been accused of crimes reported after the Republican president pardoned them, according to Crew.
One of those four was Christopher Moynihan, who pleaded guilty in February in New York to a harassment charge over threats to kill Hakeem Jeffries, the US House Democratic leader. Moynihan was later sentenced to three years’ probation.
And another from that group was Zachary Alam, who was sentenced on 7 May to seven years in prison after a jury convicted him of committing a burglary in Virginia.
