This week, a pardon from President Donald Trump was of no consequence in a federal court in California, where jurors found a former defendant from the January 6 events guilty of receiving child pornography.

Actually, the defense presented barely anything to the jury during the brief, one-day trial in the Eastern District of California, where 37-year-old Kyle Travis Colton was convicted.

Through 6 1/2 hours of proceedings on Tuesday, the government largely did the talking, with the defense eschewing both an opening statement and a closing argument – though Colton’s attorney did speak up briefly, to rest his case, according to the minutes of the trial.

The government called witnesses, designated experts, and presented evidence exhibits. The defense, meanwhile, did none of those things. Nor did the defense cross-examine the government’s expert witness – or lodge any objections in reach of the jurors’ ears.

Colton’s attorney did, however, object to some aspect of the “proposed jury instruction” or the “verdict form,” and a discussion ensued, according to the minutes. That objection was overruled.

The defendant’s overarching defense strategy was not immediately apparent in pretrial filings, during trial, or afterwards.

That is, what was left of it after U.S. District Judge Dale Alan Drozd, a Barack Obama appointee, denied a motion to dismiss.

That motion argued the investigation leading to his child pornography charge was inextricably tied up in the Jan. 6 case against him.

Colton was initially arrested in December 2023 and charged with five counts in a 15-page criminal complaint and statement of facts after he allegedly told passengers on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles “that he was part of the ‘second wave’ of rioters.”

Then, in February 2024, Colton was charged in a four-page sealed indictment with one count of receipt of child pornography for allegedly receiving “one or more visual depictions” within interstate commerce “where the production of such visual depiction involved the use of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

In October 2024, Colton pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. He faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Gone were initial charges of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building – replaced by a 1-count information in September 2024.

The defense and prosecution submitted dueling sentencing memos in early January; Colton’s sentencing hearing was, somewhat fortuitously, slated for Jan. 21. The day before that, of course, the 45th and 47th president issued blanket pardons to all Jan. 6 defendants.

Later that same day, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, sitting in Washington, D.C., signed off on the government’s motion to dismiss.

Meanwhile, as noted in the 12-page plea agreement, the child pornography charge lingered in the Golden State.

So, Colton and his federal public defender tried to avail themselves of the Trump pardon’s effects, in line with how other Jan. 6 defendants have attempted to fend off attenuated – separate but related – charges.

During the trial, prosecutors said the evidence showed Colton downloaded child sexual abuse material from July 2022 through December 2023. But the U.S. Department of Justice, in an earlier court filing, suggested even more such wrongdoing.

The Trump pardon purports to cover “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol,” the defendant’s attorneys note in a two-page motion to dismiss based on the pardon, Law&Crime previously reported. This means the laptop computer cited in the child pornography indictment cannot be relied upon because it was recovered during the investigation into Colton’s Jan. 6-related actions, according to Colton’s attorneys.

In late June, the DOJ rubbished that line of thought with an argument about the span of time, arguing Colton obtained child sexual abuse material (CSAM) both well before and well after the events of Jan. 6, describing him as “a prolific collector of child sexual abuse material.”

“Evidence from this investigation shows that Defendant downloaded, searched for, and/or possessed CSAM dating back to as early as 2010,” the opposition motion reads. “Defendant engaged in this activity while he was working abroad as a teacher in China. He continued to engage in this activity up to at least December 2023.”

After the short trial, at 5:17 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the jury unanimously found Colton guilty, according to the minutes.

During a brief post-trial hearing, the government requested that the defendant be remanded into federal custody. The judge declined that request and allowed Colton to remain free on bail.

On Thursday, the court agreed to a joint request by the government and the defense to seal most of the documents in the case.

His sentencing is currently scheduled for Oct. 27. Colton faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.