Houston man pardoned by Trump arrested on child sex charge

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

A Houston man who was recently pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been arrested on an outstanding child sex crimes charge.

Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody on Thursday after spending more than two weeks as a fugitive, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said. He had previously been charged with online solicitation of a minor stemming from a 2016 incident in which he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl.

Taake was among the roughly 1,600 people, including 120 Texans, who were charged for their roles in the U.S. Capitol riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases.

Federal prosecutors said Taake used bear spray and a metal whip to assault officers, and that he was caught after bragging about the incident to a woman he met on an online dating app. Screenshots of his messages to the woman, who later alerted law enforcement, show that he sent a selfie of himself to the woman that he said was taken “about 30 minutes” after the incident, according to court records.

In June, he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty in 2023, but was released from federal prison in Colorado following Trump’s sweeping Jan. 20 pardon of those charged for partaking in the melee.

Taake’s release was condemned by Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who said that his office had faxed a copy of Taake’s outstanding warrant to the Federal Bureau of Prisons five days before he was pardoned. After about two weeks on the lam, Taake was located and arrested at a residence in Leon County, Texas, the Harris County DA said Thursday.

Trump has referred to Jan. 6 defendants as “patriots” and “hostages,” and said his mass pardon ends a “grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.” He and other Republicans have sought to frame the riot as a peaceful protest, and those charged for their roles in it as political prisoners.

But many — including at least 37 Texans — were charged with assault or other violent crimes. Others were members of extremist groups or militias, including Stewart Rhodes, the former Granbury resident and leader of the OathKeepers militia who was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of seditious conspiracy. Dozens more, including Taake, had prior convictions or pending charges for crimes such as rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence or production of child sexual abuse material, NPR reported last month.

Of the nearly 1,575 people charged in the riot, two-thirds pleaded guilty and roughly 250 were convicted by a judge or jury, according to NPR. Only four defendants were acquitted of all charges, and fourteen had their cases dismissed.

Texans played key roles in the insurrection. They helped craft Trump’s attempts to overturn election results and were crucial to mainstreaming baseless election fraud conspiracies. On Jan. 6, a Texan was the first person to break into the Capitol, and Texas lawmakers have been among the loudest defenders of the riot and those involved in it.