President Donald Trump said during a White House event focused on his crime-prevention push that pardoning those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 doesn't undermine his public safety efforts.

Only days earlier one of those pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was charged with a new crime. Christopher Moynihan, 34, of Clinton, New York, was charged in October with one felony count of making a terroristic threat. He is accused of sending threatening text messages regarding a scheduled public appearance by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in New York City.

Asked about the case and whether the Jan. 6 pardons undercut what he's trying to accomplish on crime, Trump said: “No, you have thousands of people who we’re dealing with and if one goes haywire."

Trump pointed to the Democrat running for attorney general in Virginia, Jay Jones, who is embroiled in a text scandal. Jones texted a GOP lawmaker in 2022 that the state House speaker at the time deserved “two bullets to the head.”

"So now do you think all Democrats should be prohibited from living anymore?" Trump asked.

At least 10 other pardon Jan. 6 rioters have been rearrested

Yet even as the Trump administration has pushed a hardline law-and-order message, the president has issued a string of pardons and commutations, often to those aligned with him politically. On Oct. 23 he pardoned Changpeng Zhao a convicted money launderer whose cryptocurrency exchange Binance has a business relationship with the Trump family’s lucrative World Liberty Financial crypto enterprise. Days earlier, Trump pardoned former Republican Rep. George Santos of New York, an avid Trump supporter who had pleaded guilty to stealing money from campaign donors.

Immediately after his inauguration, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in the storming of the Capitol to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory.

In 2023, Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 riot. But he was released after Trump pardoned virtually all of those charged in the attack on his first day in office.

At least 10 other Jan. 6 rioters freed by Trump besides Moynihan have been re-arrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes including child sexual abuse, plotting to murder FBI agents and reckless homicide while driving drunk, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Moynihan was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol grounds and watched rioters fight with police at the rotunda door, according to federal prosecutors.

"And we're (expletive) in!" Moynihan yelled, federal prosecutors said. "(Expletive), yeah. Every single one of you is a patriot! Remember that. Restore this republic. Down with communism. Down with communism. Down with Biden. We will restore our republic."

Trump's comments came during a White House event that touched on U.S. military strikes on alleged drug cartel boats and deployments of the National Guard in U.S. cities for crime prevention. The strikes have been criticized by Democrats and legal experts for lacking legal authorization. Local officials have resisted using troops for policing and challenged many of the deployments in court.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Terry Collins

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says Jan. 6 pardons don't undercut law-and-order after rioter charged with new crime

Reporting by Zac Anderson, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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