Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Andrew Johnson is scheduled to be tried on child molestation charges next month, following his July arrest, nearly six months after he and more than 1,500 Jan. 6 riot defendants were pardoned by President Trump.
Government exhibit
Johnson is accused of molesting a victim for months in Hernando County, Florida, and is being held in custody before his trial date of Feb. 9.
According to court filings reviewed by CBS News, Johnson allegedly tried to silence the alleged victim in the case by offering a payout. A police affidavit alleged Johnson told the victim that he had been “pardoned for storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and he was being awarded $10 million as a result of being a ‘Jan 6er.'” The affidavit said Johnson told the victim that Johnson “would be putting (the victim) in his will to take any money he had left over.”
Johnson, 44, is accused of molesting the victim over the course of several months, beginning in 2024. After the Capitol riot, Johnson pleaded guilty to four federal charges in connection with his role in the siege. In August 2024, a judge sentenced Johnson to a year in prison for the Jan. 6 case. Johnson was accused of breaking into a private U.S. Senate meeting room and menacing police with vulgarities, while amid the riotous mob on Jan. 6. Photos obtained by the government allegedly showed Johnson climbing through a broken window in the U.S. Capitol that day.
Mr. Trump’s pardon a year ago wiped away Johnson’s conviction and prison term before he completed his sentence.
In the new Florida prosecution, police alleged Johnson was “transient” in July 2025 and was potentially sleeping in a bed in the back of a van he was driving.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty in the case.
A spokesman for the Florida state prosecutor in Hernando County told CBS News, “Any case that involves the exploitation and molestation of minors, is of the utmost importance. Defendants who commit these crimes deserve to be punished with the full weight of the criminal justice system.”
If Johnson is released before trial, he would be subject to GPS monitoring and must appear in person for all court dates, the spokesman added, and deferred further comment until there is a verdict in the trial.
Johnson’s attorney has not responded to a request for comment.
Johnson is the latest in a series of pardoned Jan. 6 riot defendants to face new post-pardon criminal charges.
Zachary Alam, a convicted Capitol rioter from Virginia who was released from prison after the Trump pardons, was arrested in May for breaking and entering a home near Richmond, Virginia. Alam was found guilty of the charge in 2025 and faces a court hearing next week ahead of sentencing.
Christopher Moynihan, a Capitol siege defendant from upstate New York, was arrested last month for allegedly threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Moynihan has pleaded not guilty.
John Banuelos, who was pardoned before going to trial for allegedly firing a gun into the air at the Capitol on Jan. 6, is being held in custody in Utah, pending an upcoming hearing in a kidnapping case. Banuelos was arrested the summer of 2025, after police said a DNA test had matched him to a 2018 kidnapping and assault.
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