WASHINGTON – In a notable move, the Trump administration has appointed a man convicted for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot to a role within the Pentagon’s policy office, according to sources and internal documentation.
Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez announced via social media this week, “Mr. Elias Irizarry is a qualified, patriotic young professional, and we are proud to have him as a political appointee.”
The Washington Post first revealed Irizarry’s appointment. Convicted of a misdemeanor trespassing charge in 2023 for his role in the riot by Trump supporters, Irizarry expressed remorse and was sentenced to two weeks in jail, court records indicate.
According to Associated Press sources familiar with internal Pentagon records, Irizarry has been placed in the office of the undersecretary of defense for policy. This office plays a crucial role in advising the defense secretary on national security matters and military strategy.
Valdez’s statement left the duration of Irizarry’s tenure in the position unspecified, and the Pentagon has opted not to release further details.
Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed his concerns on social media, questioning the suitability of having someone with Irizarry’s background in such a significant role. “This administration thinks a convicted Jan. 6 rioter should be doing that kind of work?????” he commented.
Irizarry was a 19-year-old freshman at the Citadel military college in South Carolina and a Civilian Air Patrol cadet when he joined the attack on the Capitol, court documents show. He climbed through a broken window, entered a conference room, carried a metal pole through the Capitol and took photos before leaving the building, the records say.
“Because of his training, Irizarry was undoubtedly aware of the safety threat posed by a mass of angry rioters to the Congressional members and staff inside the building,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
Irizarry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge in October 2022. In March 2023, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Irizarry to 14 days behind bars.
Before learning his sentence, Irizarry told the judge that he brought “great shame upon myself, my family and even my country,” according to a transcript.
“The idea of Americans being willing to fight other Americans and tear down the very institutions that millions of other Americans sacrificed and built and protect is horrible. It is something I have to live with being a part of,” he said.
Irizarry is not the only convicted participant of the Jan. 6 riot to find a job within the Trump administration.
Jared Wise, a former FBI agent charged with joining the crowd, was hired at the Justice Department last year to serve as an adviser to the department’s pardon attorney.
Wise was on trial in Washington when Trump returned to the White House in January and immediately pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack. The case against Wise was dismissed before the jury reached a verdict.
He announced on social media in April that he had resigned from the department, saying: “I returned to Washington to fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ against J6 defendants, but it became clear that this will only happen from outside of government. So I left and will do so.”
___
Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
