Man convicted in Jan. 6 riot at US Capitol has a job at the Pentagon

Washington– The Trump administration has given a man convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol a job in the Pentagon’s policy office, according to officials and internal records.

“Mr. Elias Irizarry is a qualified young professional and patriot, and we are proud of his political appointment,” Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said in a social media post this week.

Irizarry, whose appointment was first reported by The Washington Post, was convicted in 2023 of misdemeanor trespassing after a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Court documents show he showed remorse when he was sentenced to two weeks in prison in 2023.

Internal Pentagon records described to The Associated Press show that Irizarry was assigned to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, which is responsible for providing national security advice and support to the Secretary of Defense regarding military strategy and planning.

It was not clear from Valdez’s statement how long Irizarry served in this position, and the Pentagon refused to provide further information.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on social media: “This administration thinks one of the convicted rioters on January 6 should be doing this kind of action?????”

Court documents show Irizarry was a 19-year-old freshman at Citadel Military College in South Carolina and a Civil Air Patrol cadet when he joined the attack on the Capitol. Records say he climbed through a broken window, entered a conference room, carried a metal pole across the Capitol and took photos before leaving the building.

“Because of his training, Irizarry was undoubtedly aware of the threat posed by a group of angry rioters to members of Congress and staff inside the building,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

Irizarry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge in October 2022. In March 2023, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Irizarry to 14 days in jail.

Before Irizarry learned of the punishment, he told the judge that he had brought “great shame upon myself, upon my family, and even upon my country,” according to the transcript.

“The idea that Americans are willing to fight other Americans and tear down the institutions that millions of other Americans have sacrificed, built and protected is a horrific idea,” he said. “It’s something I have to live with as a part of it.”

Irizarry is not the only convicted participant in the Jan. 6 riot to find a job within the Trump administration.

Jared Wise, the former FBI agent tasked with joining the crowd, was appointed to the Justice Department last year to serve as an advisor to the department’s pardon lawyers.

Wise was on trial in Washington when Trump returned to the White House in January and immediately pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the cases dropped for nearly all 1,600 people accused in the attack. The case against Wise was dismissed before the jury could reach a verdict.

He announced on social media in April that he had resigned from the department, saying: “I returned to Washington to fully expose the violations committed by the FBI and the Department of Justice against the J6 defendants, but it became clear that this would only happen from outside the government. So I left and I will do just that.”

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Associated Press writers Michael Konzelman and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.