WASHINGTON — In a notable move, President Donald Trump has granted a second pardon to a January 6 defendant, who remained incarcerated due to a separate conviction involving illegal firearm possession, despite a broad clemency initiative for Capitol rioters.

This decision further underscores Trump’s readiness to exercise his presidential pardon powers in favor of supporters who attempted to maintain his presidency after his 2020 electoral defeat to President Joe Biden.

The individual in question, Daniel Edwin Wilson from Louisville, Kentucky, was under scrutiny for his participation in the Capitol riot when authorities discovered six firearms and approximately 4,800 rounds of ammunition at his residence. Due to his prior felony convictions, Wilson was legally prohibited from owning firearms.

These charges sparked a legal debate over whether Trump’s pardons for January 6 participants extended to other offenses uncovered during the extensive federal investigation that followed the Capitol assault. Earlier this year, a Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing Wilson’s case criticized the Justice Department for asserting that the president’s pardons covered Wilson’s firearm offenses.

Originally set to remain in prison until 2028, Wilson was released on Friday evening, following the presidential pardon, according to his lawyer’s statement on Saturday.

“We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon,” attorney George Pallas said in an email. “Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”

A White House official said Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.” The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.

Prosecutors had accused him of planning for the Jan. 6 riot for weeks and coming to Washington with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said he communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched to the Capitol.

Prosecutors cited messages they argued showed that Wilson’s “plans were for a broader American civil war.” In one message on Nov. 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”

Wilson said at his sentencing that he regretted entering the Capitol that day but “got involved with good intentions.”

The Justice Department had initially argued in February that Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in the White House didn’t extend to Wilson’s gun crime. The department later changed its position, saying it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, criticized the department’s evolving position and said it was “extraordinary” that prosecutors were seeking to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to illegal “contraband” found by investigators during searches related to the Jan. 6 cases.

Politico first reported Wilson’s pardon on Saturday. Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.