Man arrested in Virginia is latest Jan. 6 defendant to face new charges

Jonathan Munafo is among the Jan. 6 riot defendants who have been arrested on charges in new cases in the months after their pardons. Politics Man arrested in Virginia is latest in series of Jan. 6 riot defendants to face new charges By Scott MacFarlane Scott MacFarlane Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane is CBS News' Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws. Read Full Bio Scott MacFarlane March 4, 2026 / 7:23 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Jonathan Munafo is the latest pardoned U.S. Capitol riot defendant to again run afoul of the law. Court records reviewed by CBS News said Munafo was arrested Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia, where he was found allegedly violating supervised release conditions in a federal threat case. In a court filing Wednesday, the Justice Department said Munafo had absconded "from supervision in the Northern District of New York." As a result, the district's probation officer filed a petition reporting the violation and requested that Munafo's supervised release be revoked.Munafo was among the Jan. 6 rioters and defendants convicted or accused of violent attacks against police during the Capitol siege and pardoned by President Trump last year. Prosecutors said Munafo punched a Metropolitan Police Department officer twice while attempting to rip the officer's riot shield away. But Munafo was not completely absolved by Mr. Trump's pardon. He later pleaded guilty in a federal threats case in Michigan in 2022.Prosecutors said Munafo made dozens of menacing phone calls on Jan. 5, 2021, to a government facility near Battle Creek, Michigan. The feds said he threatened to "cut the throat" of a 911 dispatcher and threatened the dispatcher's family. Munafo was later accused of violating release conditions in the threats case in May 2025. Local authorities accused him of flooding his jail cell and breaking a sprinkler device in Rensselaer County, New York. A court docket in New York said Munafo acknowledged violating his release restrictions and was sentenced last November to an additional seven months in prison.It is unclear from court filings if Munafo had begun serving the prison term. A court record reviewed by CBS News said in December an officer "attempted to contact Munafo on the cellphone he used during his first term of supervision, however, that number is no longer active. This Officer attempted to contact a friend of Munafo, Dennis Rodgers, on multiple occasions, but no contact has been made."According to a Justice Department court filing Wednesday, Munafo is scheduled to appear for a court hearing on his latest violation Monday in federal court in Richmond. Munafo was a high-profile defendant in the US Capitol riot prosecutions. He was not only accused of assaulting police, but prosecutors said he also "took the officer's riot shield and slunk away into the crowd, leaving the officer without a shield and vulnerable to attacks from other rioters."Munafo is the latest in a series of Jan. 6 riot defendants who have been arrested on new charges in new cases in the months after their pardons. Jan. 6 defendant Bryan Betancur, 28, was arrested Monday night for assault and battery on a train in the Washington, D.C., metro area.Prosecutors charged John Banuelos, 40, for a violent attack against a woman. Though the attack occurred in 2018, three years before his alleged involvement in the Capitol siege, Banuelos was arrested in 2025, after he was finally identified by investigators.Banuelos was pardoned ahead of trial in his Capitol Riot case, in which he was accused of firing a gun into the air while amid the mob. Zachary Alam, a convicted Capitol rioter from Virginia who was released from prison after the Trump pardons, was arrested in May for breaking and entering at a home near Richmond, Virginia. Alam was convicted.Christopher Moynihan, a Capitol siege defendant from upstate New York, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a local charge in Dutchess County, New York, after allegedly threatening to murder House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Assault On The U.S. Capitol More New legislation in House would ban taxpayer money from going to Jan. 6 rioters