President Trump issued a second pardon for Daniel Edwin Wilson, who had been serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede police and to illegally possessing firearms. Investigators found six guns and about 4,800 rounds at his home, and because of prior felonies he was barred from possessing weapons. The pardon cleared the separate weapons conviction and led to Wilson’s release; it also revived debate over whether Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency extends to other crimes uncovered in the wide federal probe.
Trump Pardons Jan. 6 Defendant for Separate Gun Conviction, Resulting in His Release
President Trump issued a second pardon for Daniel Edwin Wilson, who had been serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede police and to illegally possessing firearms. Investigators found six guns and about 4,800 rounds at his home, and because of prior felonies he was barred from possessing weapons. The pardon cleared the separate weapons conviction and led to Wilson’s release; it also revived debate over whether Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency extends to other crimes uncovered in the wide federal probe.
01:43 AM, 11/16/2025Politics
WASHINGTON — President Trump grants second pardon to Jan. 6 defendant
President Donald Trump issued a second pardon for Daniel Edwin Wilson of Louisville, Kentucky, clearing him of a separate firearms conviction and leading to his release from federal custody Friday evening. Wilson had remained in prison despite the broad clemency Trump awarded to many who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol because authorities had discovered a separate weapons offense at his home.
Investigators found six firearms and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition at Wilson’s residence while probing his role in the Capitol breach. Because Wilson had prior felony convictions, federal law prohibited him from possessing guns. He pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and to illegally possessing firearms and was sentenced to five years in prison; he had been scheduled to remain incarcerated until 2028.
Legal dispute over the scope of pardons
The case touched off a legal debate about whether President Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to other offenses uncovered during the sprawling federal investigation that followed the attack on the Capitol. The Justice Department initially argued in February that Trump’s earlier pardons did not cover Wilson’s gun offense, but the department later revised that position, saying it had obtained “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee who oversaw Wilson’s case, criticized the Justice Department’s changing stance. She called it “extraordinary” that prosecutors sought to argue the pardons could be read to cover illegal contraband found in searches related to the Jan. 6 investigations.
Prosecutors had alleged Wilson spent weeks planning for the Jan. 6 breach and traveled to Washington intending to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said Wilson communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers and with adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched toward the Capitol. Prosecutors pointed to messages they say showed Wilson’s intent for broader violence; in one November 9, 2020 message he wrote, “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”
At sentencing, Wilson expressed regret for entering the Capitol and said he “got involved with good intentions.” His attorney, George Pallas, said in an email after the pardon: “We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon. Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the pardon was granted “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place.”
News of the pardon and Wilson’s release was first reported by Politico. The decision underscores ongoing legal and political fights over the reach of presidential clemency for those involved in the Jan. 6 cases and the questions prosecutors and judges face when unrelated offenses are discovered during broad investigations.