Key Point: “A former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force that President Trump established to seek retribution against his political enemies. … His selection meant that a man who had urged violence against police officers was now responsible for the department’s official effort to exact revenge against those who had tried to hold the rioters accountable.” 

New York Times: Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Police Joins Justice Dept.

By Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman 

• A former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force that President Trump established to seek retribution against his political enemies.

• Even in a Justice Department that has often been pressed into serving Mr. Trump’s political agenda, the appointment of Mr. Wise to the weaponization task force was a remarkable development. His selection meant that a man who had urged violence against police officers was now responsible for the department’s official effort to exact revenge against those who had tried to hold the rioters accountable.

• When federal prosecutors initially charged Mr. Wise in May 2023, they accused him of telling the police outside the Capitol that they were like the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s feared secret police. As violence erupted, his charging document said, he told other rioters who were attacking law enforcement officers, “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” Mr. Wise then raised his arms in celebration after breaching the Capitol in a face mask, prosecutors said, and escaped through a window.

• The case against him was dismissed on Mr. Trump’s first day back in office as part of the sprawling grant of clemency the president gave to all of the nearly 1,600 people who took part in the Capitol attack. Mr. Trump’s act of mercy came at an especially significant moment for Mr. Wise: When his indictment was thrown out, he was in the middle of his criminal trial in Federal District Court in Washington.

• But as [The Weaponization Working Group’s] name suggested, the investigative body was also an example of how [the] Justice Department, under Mr. Trump’s leadership, planned to weaponize its expansive powers to investigate and perhaps take legal action against people who had run afoul of the president.