Jan. 6 Defendant Rearrested on Weapons Charges a Day After Being Pardoned

A man pardoned after being accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday was rearrested by federal authorities on Wednesday on weapons charges.

Daniel Charles Ball was apprehended Wednesday, Jan. 22, on charges related to possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, according to an arrest warrant initially signed in August and reviewed by PEOPLE. Police seized a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition from his home.

That makes Ball the first of 1,500 defendants to be rearrested after having charges related to the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol dropped by President Donald Trump.

Ball, 39, had been denied bond and was being held pretrial for his alleged conduct on Jan. 6, which a federal judge overseeing the case alleged were “some of the most violent and serious offenses of any of the charges being brought against participants” in the riot.

In a 2023 criminal complaint, prosecutors accused Ball of hurling an explosive device at a throng of about two dozen Capitol Police officers in a tunnel opposite the rioters.

The device — which some officers told investigators they first thought was a grenade — produced a loud bang and caused many of the officers’ ears to ring for hours, according to the complaint.

Ball is also accused of throwing a wooden chair leg and a pole at the officers gathered in the tunnel; he is only alleged to have been in the actual Capitol building for a few minutes.

Ball’s Jan. 6 case was still proceeding through the Washington D.C. District Court when Trump granted the sweeping pardon to those charged and convicted in connection with Jan. 6, when rioters attempted to disrupt the 2020 electoral college vote count on behalf of Trump, who had lost that race but refused to concede.

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Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered Ball’s Jan. 6 case dismissed on Tuesday, per court records.

Just three months after the riot, Ball was arrested and charged in Florida for assaulting five civilians and two law enforcement officers, according to the 2023 complaint; he was sentenced to five years probation. He also had a 2017 conviction on his record for domestic violence via strangulation.

Others released by Trump’s pardons include two of the nation’s most prominent White supremacists, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers. Both were convicted of seditious conspiracy and were serving lengthy prison sentences for their roles in orchestrating the Capitol riot.

Reached for comment, Ball’s lawyer, Amy Collins, said the Florida case “should be dismissed with prejudice pursuant to President Trump’s January 20th proclamation as to January 6 defendants.”

Trump himself had been facing federal charges related to his alleged involvement in the events of Jan. 6, one of four indictments the president was facing.

The prosecution of those charges was derailed when the Supreme Court ruled last year that presidents have wide-ranging immunity from criminal prosecution. After Trump was re-elected as president in November, the Special Counsel leading the prosecution, Jack Smith, dropped the charges and resigned from the Justice Department, despite claiming in a January report the evidence obtained was “sufficient” for a conviction.