A 35-year-old suburban New York man pardoned after storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Christopher P. Moynihan, of Pleasant Valley, agreed to three years probation in a Clinton courtroom on Thursday after copping to a misdemeanor harassment charge. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on April 2.
AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Jan. 29. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
According to prosecutors, Moynihan sent a text message to another person in October prior to a scheduled Jeffries appearance in Midtown Manhattan. He’s accused of saying he “cannot allow this terrorist to live,” writing that the Democrat from Brooklyn “must be eliminated” for the sake of “the future.”
Moynihan was initially charged with a felony count of making terrorist threats, but instead pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Jeffries has not publicly commented on the plea agreement.
In August 2022, Moynihan was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, in addition to pleading guilty to five misdemeanor charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win over President Trump.
Thousands of MAGA loyalists descended on the nation’s capital claiming the election had been rigged, despite having no evidence to support that theory.
The Justice Department specifically accused Moynihan of barging into the Senate Chamber and paging through a notebook on a senator’s desk while saying, “There’s gotta be something in here we can f—–g use against these —-bags.”
In February 2023, Moynihan was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. He was among hundreds of other Trump supports who were pardoned when the president returned to power in 2025.
With News Wire Services
