A Jan. 6 defendant from Texas who ran for Congress last year and is reportedly attempting another political run has been granted permission to “examine and publish” footage, evidence and discovery from his criminal case surrounding the events of the 2021 Capitol attack — but the Justice Department says not so fast.

Ryan Zink, 35, of Lubbock, was granted access last week by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on account of the DOJ not filing a memorandum in opposition to Zink’s March 22 motion to lift a protective order keeping his case material sealed. Boasberg issued a minute order on April 9 announcing his decision, which the DOJ apparently saw and responded to Wednesday with the document in question.

“As the Government has not opposed Defendant’s Motion to Lift Protective Order, the Court orders that the Motion is granted, and the Protective Order is lifted,” a docket entry from Boasberg said last week.

In response, the DOJ’s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, signed off on a memorandum in opposition Wednesday that said granting such a request to Zink would put people at risk and pose a threat to national security.

“Lifting a protective order in this case creates a dangerous opportunity and could potentially place sensitive information in the possession of those who would use it to harm the national security, in addition to allowing terabytes of information including individual defendants’, witnesses’, and victims’ personal identifying information to be released to the public,” Martin said. “The government has thus demonstrated that release of these materials could cause a significant hazard to others, and there is no prejudice to the defendant from continuing the protective order here.”

A Jan. 6 defendant and Oath Keepers member from Florida who was linked to an explosives-laden RV that was allegedly brought to the Washington, D.C., area had a series of separate convictions — for possessing illegal firearms and U.S. Army grenades — officially vacated and dismissed by a federal judge Wednesday in the Sunshine State as part of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon order.

Jeremy Brown, a former U.S. Army Green Beret who was given a seven-year sentence for the weapons and grenades case, gained support from Trump’s Justice Department in late February, with federal prosecutors telling U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday that “based on consultation” with DOJ leadership it was the position of the United States that the offenses Brown was accused of — including possessing a modified AR-15 short-barreled rifle and sawed-off shotgun, both unregistered and owned illegally — were “intended to be covered” by Trump’s pardon order.

A federal judge in California has withdrawn from the case of a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter after the Trump administration notified the court that it supported the defendant’s motion to be released from prison as he appeals separate felony gun charges on the theory that his pardon absolved him of those crimes as well.

While it was not immediately clear if the judge resigned in protest, it would be the result of the Justice Department’s new position that President Donald Trump’s sweeping grant of pardons for those convicted of attacking the Capitol extends to a variety of crimes unrelated to Jan. 6.

“Good cause appearing, the assigned District Judge disqualifies herself from all proceedings in the present action,” U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston wrote in a self-signed order filed Wednesday. “The Clerk of the Court SHALL reassign this action to the docket.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley stepped in later that day and signed the document granting the release of 46-year-old Benjamin Martin.

Martin, who has multiple previous convictions for domestic violence, was found guilty in November 2024 of possessing an illegal weapons cache that included an AR‑style rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. His conviction came after a one-day trial before Thurston, who subsequently ordered Martin to serve three years and two months in federal prison.

Martin in June 2024 was convicted for his role in the Capitol riot, where he confronted cops at a set of doors to the U.S. Capitol building and got sprayed by mace.

The Washington, D.C., Attorney General’s Office has moved to dismiss — with prejudice — a civil lawsuit against two far-right extremist groups and several other individuals for their participation in the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol following “long delays” in the case, telling the court that the government no longer believes the case is worth pursuing.

“The Attorney General has determined that, notwithstanding the virtue and propriety of this case, the District’s limited law enforcement resources must now be committed elsewhere in the service of District residents, taking into account both the growing challenges the District faces and the relatively small recoveries the District stands to obtain on its remaining common law causes of action,” the OAG’s office wrote in the five-page filing explaining its decision to drop the suit against Proud Boys International, LLC and the Oath Keepers.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the civil complaint was initially filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington in December 2021 and sought millions of dollars in damages from the groups.

Proceedings were held up as many of the defendants were among the thousands of people prosecuted and convicted for their involvement in the Capitol riot. Among the most notable defendants were Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, both of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

A pardoned Jan. 6 defendant from Kentucky is going back to prison to serve out his term for separate firearms convictions after he had been erroneously released from custody.

Dan Edwin Wilson, 49, was ordered on Friday to self-surrender to federal authorities to serve the remaining time of his 60-month — or five-year — sentence.

The federal government has agreed not to share a recently compiled list identifying the FBI agents and analysts who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The agreement was reached Friday morning, just before the DOJ was scheduled to appear in court and defend against a federal lawsuit filed anonymously earlier this week by a group of agents who feared the information would be used by President Donald Trump as part of his promise to “exact revenge” on those who investigated him.

Following a protracted hearing on the matter Thursday, the two sides came to an understanding regarding a consent agreement that requires the federal government to provide the plaintiffs with at least two days notice before they can share the list with the public.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said they could not guarantee that the recently compiled list identifying the FBI employees involved in the investigation into the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol would not be publicly released by other entities or agencies of the federal government.

Appearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., the DOJ told U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb that the information on the agents had not been “officially disseminated” outside of the department — meaning it had not been given to the White House and President Donald Trump or provided to the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk — but was unable to assure the court that it would not be shared at all with other federal departments.

The proceedings stemmed from a pair of lawsuits filed earlier this week alleging that the Trump administration appeared to be planning a “purge” of the FBI’s case agents based on assignments that “upset” the president and possibly releasing identifying information about the agents publicly, which would expose them to potential harm from the approximately 1,500 convicted rioters pardoned by Trump immediately after taking office.

Shortly before the hearing began, the DOJ filed a memorandum opposing the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the dissemination of information, asserting that the department was simply commencing a “review process” in conjunction with President Trump’s executive order seeking to end what he referred to as “the weaponization of the federal government.”

During the hearing, the Justice Department said it would agree to enter into a temporary consent agreement representing that it would not disseminate the information to the public, but could not make the same guarantee about the rest of the federal government. That did not quell concerns from attorneys representing the FBI agents seeking to prohibit the release of the information due to fear of professional retaliation or physical harm.

A Jan. 6 rioter from Texas who got hit with an arrest warrant for online solicitation of a minor after being pardoned by President Donald Trump is back behind bars after being busted Thursday following a surveillance operation, cops say.

Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody by the Harris County District Attorney’s Fugitive Apprehension squad with help from multiple law enforcement agencies after a warrant was issued for his arrest late last month, according to prosecutors. Taake was caught in Leon County, Texas, and must now face justice in Houston for a 2016 charge of online solicitation of a minor. He was on pretrial release when the 2021 Capitol attack unfolded, which landed him a six-year prison sentence for attacking police officers with a metal whip and dousing them in bear spray.

Taake pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Last month, Trump scrubbed away the charge with a “full, complete and unconditional” pardon of Taake and his roughly 1,500 fellow rioters. Prosecutors in Harris County took up the solicitation charge — now that his federal case is no longer active — as a result.

“Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending State warrants, will require significant resources,” District Attorney Sean Teare said in a statement before Taake’s arrest. “Know that we are already in the process of tracking Taake down, as he must answer for 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online.”

According to prosecutors, Taake was apprehended Thursday after a surveillance operation on Tuesday confirmed he was staying at a residence in Leon County.

“We would like to thank the coordinated efforts of our office’s Fugitive Apprehension Section, Leon County Sheriff’s Office, and Texas Department of Public Safety for their diligence in getting this suspected child predator back into custody,” Teare said in a statement.

Taake made headlines at the time of his Jan. 6 arrest after he was turned in by a woman he met on the dating app Bumble. He was sentenced to 74 months in prison last year — followed by 36 months of supervised release — in addition to paying $2,000 in restitution.

More from Law&Crime: ‘Galvanized and ready’: Family members of Jan. 6 rioters and their victims say they’re ‘terrified’ of what’s to come now that Trump pardons actually happened

According to the Houston Chronicle, Taake was allegedly soliciting a person in 2016 who he “believed to be younger than 17 years of age.” He was 27 at the time.

Authorities say Taake talked on social media with an undercover cop posing as a 15-year-old girl. He allegedly sent “multiple explicit messages” and asked to meet up with her — even admitting that he “could go to jail” if anyone found out what he was doing. Taake allegedly went to an address that the undercover provided and cops arrested him. If convicted, he faces a decade in prison.

David Harris contributed to this report.

The current acting second in command at the Department of Justice — who until recently was President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney — is accusing the acting FBI director of “insubordination” for “refusing to comply” with an order to provide the names of bureau employees who headed up the investigations into the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol.

In a memo sent Wednesday, interim Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III said that last week he had asked acting FBI head Brian J. Driscoll and his deputy, Robert C. Kissane “multiple times” to identify the “core team” in Washington, D.C., that was “responsible for the investigation relating to events on January 6, 2021.”

Driscoll and Kissane have steadfastly refused to comply with the demand as multiple class action lawsuits have been filed by current agents who fear that the Trump administration will “purge” the bureau’s ranks of those perceived insufficiently loyal to the president. Even worse, several complaints filed in criminal court allege that the identifying information could be published, allowing the agents to be targeted by any of the roughly 1,500 convicted rioters Trump went on to pardon on his first day in office.

In the memo, Bove said he requested the information so the Justice Department could “conduct a review” of the agents and their conduct in connection with Trump’s executive order seeking to “end the weaponization of the federal government.”

“FBI acting leadership refused to comply,” he wrote in the memo.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a federal watchdog group, has penned an open letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the Archivist of the United States, urging them to “take action” and investigate the DOJ’s removal of its Jan. 6 database — detailing criminal charges and convictions related to the 2021 Capitol attack — which they call a “likely violation” of federal law.

“The Department of Justice’s removal of this vital information about its prosecutions arising from the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is consistent with President Trump’s ongoing efforts to rewrite or erase the insurrection,” the CREW letter reads. “We request that you promptly investigate this matter and take appropriate corrective action if necessary.”