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Taranto was arrested in Obama鈥檚 neighborhood on the same day in June 2023 that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was the former president鈥檚 address. Investigators said they found two guns, roughly 500 rounds of ammunition and a machete in Taranto鈥檚 van.

Taranto was livestreaming video on YouTube in which he said he was looking for 鈥渆ntrance points鈥� to underground tunnels and wanted to get a 鈥済ood angle on a shot,鈥� . He reposted Trump鈥檚 message about Obama鈥檚 home address and wrote: 鈥淲e got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta鈥檚 and Obama鈥檚.鈥� He was referring to , who chaired 2016 Democratic presidential campaign.

Taranto wasn’t charged with threatening Obama or Podesta. But the judge convicted him of making a hoax bomb threat directed at the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Taranto鈥檚 lawyers said he didn鈥檛 have any bomb-making material and wasn鈥檛 near the institute when he made those statements on a livestreamed video. During the trial鈥檚 opening statements, defense attorney Pleasant Brodnax said the video shows Taranto was merely joking in an 鈥渁vant-garde鈥� manner.

鈥淗e believes he is a journalist and, to some extent, a comedian,鈥� Broadnax said.

But the judge concluded that a reasonable, objective observer might have believed Taranto’s statements on the video. While some viewers may have thought his words were of a “madcap nature,” others could have interpreted them as coming from 鈥渁n unbalanced narrator willing to follow through on outlandish claims,鈥� Nichols said.

Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, didn鈥檛 immediately schedule a sentencing hearing for Taranto. He has been jailed for nearly two years since his arrest because a that he poses a danger to the public.

After reading his verdict from the bench, the judge said he would entertain a request by defense attorney Carmen Hernandez to release Taranto from custody until his sentencing. Nichols said he intends to rule on that request later this week.

Taranto, a Navy veteran from Pasco, Washington, is one of only a few people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol who remained jailed after President ‘s sweeping act on clemency in January. Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes .

Before Trump鈥檚 pardons, Taranto also was charged with four misdemeanors related to the Jan. 6 attack. Prosecutors said he joined the crush of rioters who breached the building. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker鈥檚 Lobby around the time that a rioter, , was shot and killed by an officer while she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.