For the second time this year, Dan Edwin Wilson, a former January 6 defendant and member of the far-right group the Oath Keepers, received a pardon from President Donald Trump – this time to wipe two possession of an unregistered firearm charges.
Wilson, 50, was among the nearly 1,600 people who received a day-one pardon from the president for their role in the attack on the Capitol. He had been charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer at the Capitol.
But he also received separate charges of possession of an unregistered firearm in Kentucky – which were brought after law enforcement officials investigating his role in January 6 executed a search warrant on Wilson’s home.
A judge overseeing the firearm possession charges case refused to extend Trump’s January 6 pardon to cover those counts – leading Trump to make a second act of clemency Friday, first reported by Politico.
A White House official said in a statement that Trump chose to pardon Wilson again because “the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6.”
During the investigation into Wilson’s activities on January 6, prosecutors said he communicated with others to organize a “protest” at the Capitol as a way to support Trump, who had spread lies that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Prosecutors said through messages, Wilson identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and the Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militias. He discussed bringing firearms to Washington, D.C., ahead of the protest and the possibility of a “civil war.”
In a December 2020 message, Wilson wrote: “If Trump wins we have to get this government under control it’s been crossing my mind if we go to a Civil War do we try to take Washington DC first or do we try to take state capitals first.”
Days later, Wilson wrote: “I am ready to lay my life on the line. It is time for good men to do bad things.”
In August 2024, Wilson pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges related to his efforts on January 6. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison.
But Wilson was among the handful of January 6 defendants who were not permitted to leave prison after Trump granted the sweeping pardons on his first day in office due to the other firearm possession charges.
Although the administration initially agreed that Trump’s day-one pardon did not cover Wilson’s firearm charges, the Justice Department later changed its mind and argued it should since the firearm charges stemmed from an investigation related to the January 6 charges.
However, the judge disagreed, believing it extended Trump’s pardon too far.
Trump’s second pardon explicitly references the firearm-related charges case.
