He told Jan 6 rioters to ‘kill' cops. After Trump's pardon, he got hired at the Justice Department
Wise admitted to urging rioters to 'kill' law enforcement at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and faced six counts in connection with the riots. The former FBI agent berated police as 'Nazis' and 'Gestapo' and testified that he would be 'morally justified' if he had assaulted them in defense of what he viewed as excessive force, according to court documents.
Wise was pardoned by the president on his first day in office, along with nearly every rioter charged in connection with the assault.
Now, he is working as a senior adviser in the Department of Justice, NPR has learned.
'Jared Wise is a valued member of the Department of Justice and we appreciate his contributions to our team,' according to a DOJ statement shared with The Independent by the White House.
Trump's Justice Department moved to dismiss Wise's case on January 20, and the judge overseeing the case granted the request.
Wise worked for the FBI from 2004 through 2017. By the time he joined the Jan 6, 2021 assault on Congress, as lawmakers convened to certify the results of the 2020 election, Wise was working as a consultant in Oregon. He had traveled to Washington, D.C., to support Trump, according to court filings.
According to surveillance footage shared in court documents, Wise joined a mob that broke into the Capitol, and 'clapped his hands and raised his arms in triumph' as he walked into the Senate wing. Two hours later, he clashed with police officers outside the building.
'You guys are disgusting,' he said, according to footage from police-worn body cameras. 'I'm former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. … Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!'
As a group of rioters pushed against police and knocked at least one officer to the ground, Wise turned towards the violence and shouted 'f*** them' and 'kill 'em,' according to court filings.
'Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!' he shouted.
In 2023, federal prosecutors obtained an indictment against Wise for civil disorder, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and aiding and abetting an assault on law enforcement officers. He pleaded not guilty, and trial was scheduled for January 17, 2025.
According to his testimony in court transcripts, Wise admitted what he said was 'terrible' and that he 'shouldn't say those things.'
'I think I was careless and used, like, terrible words when I was angry,' he said. He described his call to 'kill 'em' as an 'angry reaction."
'I don't want people to die,' he said.
Wise did not assault police himself, though he said that he would have been 'morally justified' to do so if he saw what he believed was excessive force against rioters. His decision to enter the Capitol was 'irrational' and 'it was probably obvious' that he was not supposed to be there, he said.
It's unclear what role Wise is performing at the DOJ, though messages obtained by NPR indicate that his title is senior adviser in the office of the deputy attorney general, and that he has been working on internal reviews of alleged 'weaponization' of law enforcement. The Independent has requested additional comment from the Justice Department.
Trump has appointed right-wing activist Ed Martin — who served on a board providing financial support to Jan 6 defendants — as a pardon attorney and director of the administration's 'Weaponization Working Group.' Martin was serving as the acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., before Trump pulled his nomination and brought in Fox News personality Jeannine Piro to serve as the capital's top prosecutor.
Martin and Pirro succeeded Matthew Graves, who led the largest federal investigation in Justice Department history with the prosecution of more than 1,600 people in connection with the Jan 6 attack. The assault on the Capitol was fueled by Trump's ongoing false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Trump issued 'full pardons' for virtually all Jan 6 rioters on the night of his inauguration. Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi has also fired dozens of career prosecutors who worked on Jan 6 cases while the administration scrubs evidence and public statements about the attack from government websites.
found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
The Trump administration has also agreed to pay $5 million to settle a wrongful death suit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while trying to break into the House chambers.
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