‘Excellent job’: Trump-appointed judge gushes over DOJ prosecutors sidelined over J6 memo

A Trump-appointed federal district judge in Washington, D.C., went out of his way on Thursday to praise a pair of Justice Department prosecutors who were put on leave shortly after writing a harsh sentencing memo against a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant. The prosecutors had described the event as a “mob of rioters,” Politico reported.

The defendant, Taylor Taranto, was separately convicted in a bench trial for livestreaming himself near former President Barack Obama’s house while in possession of a large cache of illegal weapons. He also issued a fake threat to bomb a government building.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over the bench trial and issued the convictions, made his statement as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White— the two attorneys placed on leave— looked on from the gallery. They were replaced by the chief of the criminal section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., Jonathan Hornok, and another prosecutor, Travis Wolf.

Judge Nichols said Valdivia and White “upheld the highest standards of professionalism” throughout the trial. “In my view, both … did a truly excellent job in this case,” he added.

Following the removal of Valdivia and White, their sentencing memo recommending 27 months in prison disappeared from the court docket. It was replaced with a new memo that omitted all references to Taranto being a January 6 rioter and made no mention of President Donald Trump posting the address of Obama’s house on his Truth Social platform shortly before Taranto appeared there.

Ultimately, Taranto was sentenced to 21 months in prison, which is less than the amount of time he has already spent in custody during the trial process. This means he will be released on time served. In addition to his prison sentence, he faces three years of supervised release.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-judge-2674252507/

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