Andrew Paul Johnson, a Florida man who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump, has been convicted by a Hernando County jury of multiple child sex-abuse-related offenses, including lewd and lascivious exhibition and molestation charges involving a child who was 11 at the time, according to NPR and Florida prosecutors. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March and could face a life sentence.
A Hernando County, Florida, jury on Tuesday convicted Andrew Paul Johnson on five counts tied to child sex-abuse allegations, including charges of molesting a child under 12, molesting a child under 16, and three counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition, according to NPR and Florida prosecutors.
Johnson was acquitted on a separate count alleging he sent sexual material to a child, NPR reported.
The case stems from an investigation by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. A law-enforcement report filed in the Florida case described allegations that Johnson subjected children to sexual abuse over a “many-month span,” including exposing his genitalia, and said one of the victims was 11 years old at the time, according to NPR.
Prosecutors said Johnson tried to keep a victim from reporting the allegations by claiming he would receive $10 million from the Trump administration as restitution for Jan. 6 defendants and that he would share that money, according to NPR’s account of the police report.
Separately, Johnson had faced federal charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Court records and reporting cited by other outlets say Johnson pleaded guilty in 2024 and was sentenced to a year in prison by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. He later received a full pardon as part of Trump’s clemency actions for many people charged in connection with Jan. 6.
William Forgie, chief assistant state attorney for Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, told NPR that Johnson faces up to life in prison and is expected to be sentenced in March. A lawyer listed for Johnson did not respond to requests for comment, NPR and other outlets reported.
The conviction is one of several instances in which people granted clemency for Jan. 6-related cases have later faced new criminal allegations, according to reporting by multiple outlets.
