From January 6 to the Federal Government: Who From the Capitol Riot Is Working for the Government Now?

September 21, 2026|QLP News Room

This piece investigates a narrow, specific question: which named individuals with documented January 6 involvement or documented extremist-organization affiliation have subsequently obtained federal government positions — and, separately, whether any confirmed case connects that pattern specifically to ICE. These are four legally and factually distinct categories, and conflating them is the single most common error in how this subject gets discussed. We name only individuals whose situations are already a matter of public record through their own statements, court filings, or on-record government confirmation.

West front of the United States Capitol building

The U.S. Capitol
The building at the center of the events of January 6, 2021, whose aftermath is still working its way through federal employment records five years later. Photo: Architect of the Capitol, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Category A: Conviction, Then Federal Employment

Documented fact: Elias Irizarry, a former Citadel cadet, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge related to January 6 in October 2022 and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to 14 days in jail in March 2023. Internal Pentagon records reviewed by the Associated Press show Irizarry was subsequently assigned to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the position on the record: "Mr. Elias Irizarry is a qualified, patriotic young professional, and we are proud to have him as a political appointee." This is a Defense Department position, not an ICE or DHS position — we include it because it is the clearest documented example of Category A, not because it involves immigration enforcement specifically.

The Pentagon
Headquarters of the Department of Defense, where internal records confirm Elias Irizarry's post-conviction appointment to a policy office. Photo: David B. Gleason, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Category B: Charged, Never Convicted, Federal Employment

Documented fact: Jared Wise, a former FBI supervisory special agent (2004–2017), was indicted in 2023 on charges including civil disorder and aiding an assault on law enforcement officers related to January 6. He pleaded not guilty. His trial began in early January 2025; the Justice Department moved to dismiss his case on January 20, 2025 (Inauguration Day), and the dismissal was granted the following day. Wise subsequently served in DOJ's "Weaponization Working Group" as an investigator and counselor to Ed Martin. He announced his resignation from DOJ in April 2026, writing that he had "returned to Washington to fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ against J6." Important distinction, stated explicitly: Wise was charged, not convicted — his case was dismissed before any trial verdict. Describing him as a "convicted January 6 offender" would be factually wrong.

Category C: Political/Legal Advocacy, Federal Appointment

Documented fact: Ed Martin was a "Stop the Steal" organizer, served as a defense attorney for three January 6 defendants, and has acknowledged being near the Capitol amid the crowd on January 6, 2021. He was subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee. He was not charged with any crime related to that day. He served as acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. beginning January 2025, then as the Justice Department's Pardon Attorney and director of the Weaponization Working Group, before leaving the administration to focus on election-related legal work. Important distinction, stated explicitly: Martin is not a January 6 defendant, rioter, or convicted offender — his documented connection to that day is political organizing beforehand, legal representation of defendants afterward, and presence in the crowd outside, not any criminal charge.

U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building exterior

U.S. Department of Justice headquarters
Both Jared Wise and Ed Martin held DOJ positions after January 6 — Wise in the Weaponization Working Group, Martin as Pardon Attorney and that group's director. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Category D: Extremist-Organization Affiliation, Federal Employment

Documented fact: A December 2022 investigation by the Project on Government Oversight and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, based on a leaked internal Oath Keepers membership roster, found 306 dues-paying members who self-identified as affiliated with DHS or a component agency, including 21 who indicated they were currently working there when their information was recorded. Of the DHS-affiliated entries: 184 identified with the Coast Guard, 67 with DHS generally, 40 with CBP/Border Patrol, 11 specifically with ICE, and 7 with the Secret Service. Critical caveat, stated as the brief for this piece requires: these are self-reported affiliations contained in a leaked membership list, not independently confirmed current employment records. We did not find published confirmation of which specific individuals' employment claims were independently verified, whether DHS investigated the roster, or whether anyone was disciplined as a result. The 11 ICE-specific entries in particular should be read as "self-identified in a 2022 leaked list," not as a confirmed, current count.

Separately, a specific false claim, corrected directly: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is not and has never been employed by ICE. DHS explicitly confirmed this on the record: "This individual was never hired by ICE." The false claim originated from Tarrio appearing on an independent website ("ICE List") that catalogs information related to immigration enforcement; his entry there identifies him only as "Propagandist; Agitator," not as ICE personnel. Tarrio himself posted online denying the claim, while noting sardonically that he wished it were true.

The Current Hiring Question — And How DHS Answered It

Documented fact: On January 12, 2026, House Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, sent a formal four-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asking directly: "How many pardoned January 6th insurrectionists have been hired by your respective departments?" The letter also raised concerns that DHS's ICE recruitment campaign had used language advocates characterized as courting members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. DHS's actual response: not an answer to the question, but a personal characterization of it — Assistant DHS Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called Raskin's letter "reckless, disgusting and unhinged." As of this writing, we did not find a published DHS response confirming or denying any specific, named individual was hired by ICE with documented January 6 participation, distinct from the Pentagon (Irizarry) and DOJ (Wise, Martin) positions documented above. We are not stating that January 6 participants are currently serving as ICE agents — we did not find a confirmed individual case establishing that. What we can document is that a direct congressional question got a personal insult in place of a number.

The Same DOJ, a Different Kind of Dismissal

Documented fact: The same Justice Department that dismissed Jared Wise's January 6 case on its own motion in January 2025 separately blocked a serious civil rights charge against an ICE agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and then lying about the circumstances — reporting on the case describes DOJ leadership overriding the federal prosecutor's "strongest possible" objections to stand down. Interpretation: we're not asserting these two decisions share a common legal rationale — they're different cases, different offices, different facts. What's directly comparable is the pattern: the same institution that moved quickly to end a case against one of its own former agents facing January 6 charges has, separately, moved to prevent a case against a current agent accused of shooting someone and falsifying the story about it. Whatever the individual justification in each instance, that's not an institution behaving as though accountability applies evenly.

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A case-by-case audit like this one is a form of Anti-Fascism in itself — insisting on the distinction between a conviction, a dismissed charge, political advocacy, and an unverified leaked list, rather than letting any of it blur together, or letting an insult stand in for an answer.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does this article prove ICE specifically hired January 6 rioters?

No. The two clearest documented individual cases (Irizarry, Wise) are Pentagon and DOJ positions, not ICE. The ICE-specific claims in Category D rely on a 2022 leaked, self-reported roster we could not independently verify as current or accurate for any named individual, and DHS has not substantively answered the direct congressional question about current hires.

Is it fair to call Ed Martin a "January 6 rioter"?

No, and this piece deliberately doesn't. Martin's documented connection to that day is organizing before it and legal representation after it, plus presence in the crowd — not a riot participation charge.

What happened to Jared Wise's case, exactly?

It was dismissed by the Justice Department's own motion in January 2025, before a verdict. That is different, as a legal matter, from an acquittal or a conviction, and different again from a pardon.

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Whatever the outcome of the specific personnel questions raised above, the broader concern driving this series is the same: an agency undergoing rapid expansion, with real accountability gaps and a parent department more comfortable insulting a congressman than answering him.

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