Justice Dept. says many Jan. 6 pardons extend to crimes after that date

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/10/justice-department-jan6-pardons/

When the FBI raided the Baltimore County home of Elias N. Costianes in February 2021, they found cocaine, testosterone, marijuana, a scale and guns. “The defendant was a drug dealer,” prosecutors would later say, adding, “he was also armed.” Costianes said he was merely supplying himself and friends.

In September 2024, a federal judge sentenced Costianes, who pleaded guilty to possessing a gun while using illegal drugs, to a year and a day in federal prison. But Costianes then played a new card: He was also part of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and President Donald Trump had pardoned him.

Costianes claimed that the pardon also covered his gun conviction because the FBI raid was related to his pardoned actions on Jan. 6.

And the government agreed.