Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has announced another major arrest.
In a press release, Pirro’s office announced that a Washington state man who livestreamed threats has been convicted on several charges.
The 39-year-old man from Pasco, Washington, was found guilty by a federal judge yesterday of illegally carrying two guns without a license, unlawfully possessing ammunition, and spreading false information and hoaxes. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Crimes made the announcements.
Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court found Taylor Taranto guilty of all charges and will set up a sentencing hearing after deciding whether to grant the defense’s request to free Taranto until the sentencing hearing.
On June 28, 2023, Taranto streamed a live video of himself while driving his van near National Harbor, Maryland. He told the crowd that he had been “working on a detonator” and that he was going to drive a car bomb into the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
He was going after a neutron generator on the NIST grounds. Then he drove across the Wilson Bridge to Alexandria, Virginia. He stopped his van in the middle of the street and ran away from it to show his audience how he could make it look like there was an emergency.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI’s Washington Field Office moved right away to find Taranto and let other police departments in the area know about the possible bomb threat.
After that, Taranto did another video that showed him driving around D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood. This is how the FBI found out where he was. The police caught Taranto at Kalorama and found out that the bomb threat was a fake.
Police officers searched his car and found two guns, several clips, and hundreds of rounds of ammo.
Pirro’s office made headlines earlier this week when she announced criminal charges and sentencing in Washington, D.C.
The sentence for two guys who carried out a drive-by shooting near an elementary school in D.C. in broad daylight was revealed by Pirro on Wednesday evening, the same day she took office, the Washington Examiner noted.
Due to their involvement in the April 2024 shooting, Rasheed Mullins, 27, and Josiah Warfield, 24, were both given sentences exceeding seven years in federal prison. Mullins was sentenced to 90 months and Warfield to 100 months; both were then had to serve five years of supervised release. Earlier this year, both individuals entered guilty pleas to assault with intent to murder while armed.
Her office also announced on Thursday that Te’Vaughn Brown, 20, has been indicted for felony assault on a senior person prior to a Nationals baseball game in August of last year, with a trial scheduled for July 14.
Amid Pirro’s appointment, Democratic lawmakers are already questioning Trump’s naming of a second interim attorney for the nation’s capital without Senate input.
Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harris Fields said, “The appointment of Judge Jeanine Pirro to be the interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is consistent with the law and the long-standing advice of the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel.”
Following the 120-day interim term, the president must propose a permanent nominee for Senate approval, or the district court may select a replacement.
Trump has pledged to make the nation’s capital secure following years of growing crime rates, stating in a speech at the Department of Justice earlier this year that “we’re not going to have crime, and we’re not going to stand for crime.”
Crime has decreased in D.C. this year, with robberies down 24%, killings down 17%, and assaults with a dangerous weapon down 14%, according to Metropolitan Police figures.
The White House has not stated whether the president would seek her Senate approval to fill the position permanently.
