The Justice Department placed two D.C.-based federal prosecutors on leave after they filed court papers calling the Jan. 6 Capitol siege a “riot” perpetrated by a “mob,” three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Wednesday.
The papers were submitted Tuesday in the case of Taylor Taranto, who was pardoned by Trump on Capitol riot charges earlier this year but was later convicted of livestreaming a bomb threat. He was arrested in 2023 while livestreaming himself driving around former President Barack Obama’s D.C. neighborhood while armed, according to prosecutors.
The filing — which asked a judge to sentence Taranto to 27 months in prison at a hearing Thursday — mentioned Taranto’s Jan. 6 charges and briefly described the events of that day, writing that “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol.”
That unsparing description of the Capitol riot was notable, as Mr. Trump has called Jan. 6 a “day of love” and referred to the rioters as “hostages.”
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