A gas mask-wearing Jan 6 insurrectionist is already heading back to prison for two unrelated firearm convictions just weeks after being issued a presidential pardon.
Dan Edwin Wilson, 49, from Louisville, Kentucky, was one of about 1,500 rioters granted clemency by Donald Trump on January 20 after being charged with crimes connected to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building in Washington, DC.
U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich – who was appointed by Trump – rejected Wilson’s claim that the pardon covered his separate convictions in Kentucky for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of an unregistered firearm.
In June 2022, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant and seized six guns from his home. He was ordered to self-surrender to the Bureau of Prisons to serve the remainder of his five-year prison sentence on Friday.
“The Certificate makes clear that the pardon only applies to convictions for offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” prosecutors wrote.
The firearms convictions, they said, did not occur at the Capitol on Janaury 6, 2021, meaning the “pardon does not extend to these convictions”.
In May 2024, Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede or injure an officer and, separately, his gun convictions, court records show. He was sentenced on August 28, 2024.
Details of his involvement in the build-up to the riots were detailed in court documents, including joining a Telegram channel called “Coalition of the Unknown” with others who would go on to storm the Capitol.
Wilson went by the nom de guerre “Live Wire,” according to the filings.
The assailant said he would wear bullet-resistant armor under his clothes and initially claimed he would carry a gun upon storming the Capitol, prosecutors said.
Others in the group were said to have suggested bringing battens and knives because, according to one man, it “looks bad firing in a crowd”.
In other messages, Wilson spoke of fomenting a civil war.
On January 5, 2021, Wilson decided it was no longer necessary to wield a firearm.
After the Coalition of the Unknown realized that Congress wasn’t going to intervene in Joe Biden’s confirmation process, Wilson allegedly wrote a chilling note.
“I'm ready to lay my life on the line,” he said, according to prosecutors, adding: “It is time for good men to do bad things.”
On Jan. 6, Wilson coordinated with far-right extremist groups – including the Oath Keepers – on the via walkie-talkie app Zello in a group called “Stop the Steal J6” as rioters breached the Capitol building, prosecutors said.
Wilson then made his way to the Upper West Terrace, stood on a set of bleachers shouting “f**k the police” and “triumphantly raised his fist,” per the filings.
He entered the Capitol Rotunda sporting a gas mask before leaving 12 minutes later, prosecutors said.
Wilson was arrested on May 25, 2023, almost a year after authorities executed the search warrant was executed on his home.
