Overview
- David Daniel, who reached a plea agreement Tuesday according to federal court filings, will plead guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing sexually explicit images of children, and sentencing has not been set.
- Court records say he enticed a child under 12 in 2015 and 2016 to create sexual images, and prosecutors say he later directed another minor to send explicit images to his iPhone through a messaging app.
- Investigators say they discovered the images in November 2023 while examining devices in his Jan. 6 case, which is how the separate offenses came to light.
- U.S. District Judge Matthew Orso ruled in January 2026 that Trump's Jan. 6 pardon does not apply to Daniel's child‑exploitation indictment because the conduct was unrelated to the Capitol events.
- Other pardoned Jan. 6 defendants have faced separate child‑sex prosecutions, with Daniel Tocci sentenced to four years and Andrew Paul Johnson to life in March, signaling a broader pattern of pursuing non‑Capitol crimes uncovered in those probes.