U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump, praised two prosecutors removed from the case of a Jan. 6, 2021, rioter, saying they had “upheld the highest standards of professionalism.”
“In my view, both Mr. Valdivia and Mr. White did a truly excellent job in this case,” Nichols said during a Thursday sentencing hearing for Jan. 6 rioter Taylor Taranto.
His comments referenced Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, who heard his comments from their place in the courtroom’s public gallery.
The two men were the original prosecutors on Taranto’s case but were placed on leave earlier this week after the pair submitted a sentencing memo in the case that described the Capitol attack as a “riot” carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob.”
The 14-page sentencing memo primarily described the pair’s argument to sentence Taranto to serve 27 months in prison for crimes unrelated to the Jan. 6 riot. Law enforcement arrested Taranto in September 2023. The charges brought against him by Valdivia and White stem from Taranto’s role in falsely perpetuating a bomb hoax and driving with a van filled with ammunition near former President Obama’s home in Washington, D.C.
Valdivia and White mentioned Taranto’s role in the Jan. 6 riot in a single paragraph in the memo, which also describes Taranto as having promoted “conspiracy theories” after the Capitol attack.
Trump issued a blanket pardon for more than 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6 riot, including Taranto, earlier this year. He promised to do so at various points in his presidential campaign last year, calling Jan. 6 “a day of love.” He said the pardons corrected “a grave national injustice” and began a process of “national reconciliation.”
Valdivia and White were placed on leave within hours of submitting the memo. They submitted a revised version later that day which omitted references to Trump and Jan. 6.
Several colleagues joined Valdivia and White in the courthouse gallery during Taranto’s hearing, where they watched prosecutors Jonathan Hornok and Travis Wolf take their place and argue for Taranto to serve their recommended sentencing time.
Nichols sentenced Taranto to 21 months in prison, saying though his conduct was “serious” it wasn’t “egregious” or the “most serious” he had seen. Nichols was appointed to D.C.’s federal court in 2019 during the first Trump administration.
