Tampa Bay Capitol rioter pardoned by Trump gets life for molesting 2 kids

A Florida handyman who was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison for molesting two children had been convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, is among several Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged with new crimes since Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Capitol rioters. On his first day back in the White House last year, Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the attack.

Johnson, who is from Seffner, was convicted last month of two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child and one count of electronically transmitting material harmful to a minor, according to prosecutors in Hernando County. County Circuit Judge Judge Stephen Toner handed down Johnson’s life sentence.

Sheriff’s deputies began investigating the child molestation allegations against Johnson in July. One of his victims told investigators that the abuse started around April 2024, several months before Johnson was sentenced for his Capitol riot conviction.

Johnson told one of his victims that he expected to be compensated for being a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and would be putting the child in his will to inherit any leftover money, according a sheriff’s office report.

“This tactic was believed to be used to keep (the child) from exposing what Andrew had done,” the report said.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2026/03/05/andrew-paul-johnson-pardoned-rioter-florida/