Following his release from a federal prison last week, a Houston man who was pardoned by President Donald Trump after being found guilty of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol is now wanted in Harris County on a prior charge of online solicitation of a minor.
After entering a guilty plea to assaulting cops in Washington, D.C., using bear spray and a whip-like weapon, Andrew Taake, 36, was given a six-year jail sentence in June 2024. Following Trump’s pardon of Taake and more than 1,500 other insurgents on his first day in office, Taake was released from a federal prison in Florence, Colorado, on January 20.
A group of Trump supporters rushed the Capitol and interrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was convened to certify the 2020 presidential election results in favor of Joe Biden at the end of Trump’s first term as president in 2021. In December 2023, Taake entered a guilty plea for his involvement in the assault.
In a statement to Houston Public Media on Monday, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare affirmed that Taake remains wanted under an active state warrant for allegedly soliciting a minor online in 2016.
According to Teare, Taake’s pending warrant in Texas prompted his office to request that federal authorities hold him in Colorado. However, Taake was released even though the DA’s office faxed a copy of the warrant to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on January 15, five days before to his pardon.
According to Teare, the DA’s office is currently trying to find and apprehend Taake.
“Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending state warrants, will require significant resources,” Teare stated in a statement. “Know that we are already in the process of tracking Taake down, as he must answer for [the] 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online.”
Taake is charged in county court documents with using an online chat service to pursue a sexual relationship with a person he knew to be younger than 17. When Taake was detained by the FBI in July 2021 for his activities on January 6, the Harris County case against him was still ongoing.
Although the Federal Bureau of Prisons stated that Taake was freed on January 15 in accordance with Trump’s pardon, they would not comment on why he was not detained in Texas on the unrelated warrant.
A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told Houston Public Media, “The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) does not discuss specific security practices or conditions of confinement for any individual, or provide additional information on individuals who are no longer in our custody, for privacy, safety, and security reasons.”
A “complete and unconditional pardon” was granted by Trump in particular to individuals “convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The pardon made no mention of any additional possible offenses.
According to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, the person was included on a list of defendants to whom the pardons would apply. The statement also stated that prisoners who are incarcerated at the moment should be released right away. According to our perspective, if they were incarcerated and on our list, they were supposed to be released.
According to a database created by the U.S. Department of Justice, Taake was one of over a dozen Houston-area residents who were either charged with or found guilty of crimes connected to the 2021 uprising.
According to federal court filings, Taake was accused of assaulting officers during the uprising after discussing his role in the disturbance with a woman on the dating app Bumble. Taake sprayed police with bear spray before hitting them with a metal whip-like instrument, according to body camera footage taken by Capitol cops and other images and videos shared on social media.
