Violent Jan 6 rioter pardoned by Donald Trump being sought on charges of child sex solicitation
A violent Capitol rioter who was released from prison after being pardoned by Donald Trump is now wanted on separate charges of child sex solicitation.
Andrew Taake, 36, from Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty in 2023 to beating officers with a metal whip and dousing them with bear spray while storming the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.
After being turned in by a woman he chatted with on the dating app Bumble, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison plus three years of post-released supervision.
But now that he's free again, Texas prosecutors are seeking him for trial on charges related to text messages he allegedly sent an undercover cop pretending to be a 15-year-old girl back in 2016.
According to court documents, Taake was already awaiting trial for those messages when he journeyed to the Capitol "ready for violence" in January 2021.
Nevertheless, he was freed from federal prison despite a formal request from Texas authorities to keep him in custody so that he could be tried for the 2016 charge, according to Houston officials.
A spokesperson for the Harris County district attorney's office told The Independent that it had first requested Taake's hold back in 2022 and sent over further paperwork on January 15, five days before Donald Trump's blanket pardon order. Trump hailed those imprisoned on charges in the Captitol riot as 'patriots.'
'Re-arresting individuals like Taake, who were released with pending state warrants, will require significant resources,' the spokesperson said. 'Know that we are already in the process of tracking Taake down, as he must answer for the 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online.'
Taake was among more than 1,500 people who were pardoned or had their sentences communted by Donald Trump for their roles in the Capitol riot in a bid to overturn the 2020 election for Trump, including far-right militia fighters found guilty of sedition. Trump hailed the prisoners as 'patriots.'
On Sunday, another 'J6er' from Indiana was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop. Police said he was found with a gun.
Taake has a long history with the law. According to his sentencing memo, he was jailed for six years at age 19 for crashing his car into another vehicle while drunk.
In 2015 he was convicted of speeding and driving without insurance while on probation, and in 2022 and 2023 he fought with inmates while in prison on Capitol-related charges, according to documents.
In May 2016, the memo alleges, Taake initiated a conversation with an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl and sent 'multiple explicit messages' before proposing to meet in person.
At one point he allegedly admitted to the cop that he 'could go to jail' for the liaison.
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