NBC News investigative reporter Ken Dilanian was flabbergasted as President Donald Trump's Justice Department moved to eliminate a sentencing memo for a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter who went to former President Barack Obama's house in 2023 with illegal guns and ammunition.
The rioter, Taylor Taranto, livestreamed video of himself near Obama's house shortly after the address was posted by Trump on his Truth Social platform. Taranto also created a false hoax that he was on a "one-way mission" to blow up the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and was arrested during his stream.
He was one of 1,500 people given pardons for his involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol — but that pardon did not extend to the livestreaming incidents.
"Investigators said they found two guns, a machete and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Taranto's van when he was arrested. Court records say Taranto repeatedly said that he was trying to get a 'shot' and that he wanted to get a 'good angle on a shot,'" wrote Dilanian on Wednesday, recounting the case.
"The prosecutors on his case, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White of the DC U.S. Attorneys Office, filed a detailed sentencing memo Tuesday asserting that Taranto’s actions 'caused the evacuation of a residential neighborhood and forced law enforcement agents from multiple agencies to respond to his false bomb hoax,'" wrote Dilanian. "The memo added, 'A 27-month sentence reflects the gravity of Taranto’s conduct, his lack of remorse, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in similar threatening conduct.'"
However, Dilanian noted, both prosecutors were placed on leave on Wednesday, and then later that evening, the 27-month sentencing memo vanished from the court docket.
"Please judge for yourself whether this fits the definition of Orwellian," he added.
Shortly after the memo vanished, a new one was filed, according to Politico's Kyle Cheney — this one completely omitting any references to Taranto being a January 6 rioter, or that Trump had posted Obama's home address shortly before the incident.
Despite the pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, a number have not only continued to face unrelated charges, but have been hit with new ones. In July, pardoned rioter Edward Kelley was sentenced to life in prison for plotting the assassinations of FBI agents.
