On Tuesday, Daniel Ball’s case tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was formally dismissed after he received a full pardon from President Trump. But by Wednesday, Ball was arrested once more on pending federal gun charges.
The Florida man appears to be the first Jan. 6 rioter to face additional legal trouble after the sweeping clemency bestowed on those who rioted at the Capitol as lawmakers sought to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. His arrest warrant was also the first publicly filed in Washington following the start of Trump’s second presidency.
Ball was charged in May 2023 with 12 counts tied to the Capitol attack, including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon and using explosives to commit a felony.
Prosecutors said he worked with other rioters to “violently push” against police outside the Lower West Terrace entrance, and when their efforts failed, he threw an explosive device into the entrance. It detonated on 25 officers, according to an FBI affidavit.
His trial was initially slated to begin on Jan. 6, but the judge vacated that date in October.
In his new indictment, there’s no mention of those charges, which Trump wiped from his record. However, Ball’s two previous convictions — for domestic violence battery by strangulation in June 2017 and battering and resisting law enforcement with violence in October 2021 — are detailed in the charging papers. He’s accused of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, around May 2023.
Ball is one of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants who saw their charges dismissed with the stroke of Trump’s pen Monday in one of the first acts of his second presidency. A handful of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders also saw their sentences commuted to time served as part of the far-reaching clemency action.
