A Houston man who was pardoned by President Donald Trump after being convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was released from a federal prison last week but is now wanted in Harris County on a pre-existing charge of online solicitation of a minor.
Andrew Taake, 36, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2024 after pleading guilty to assaulting officers with bear spray and a whip-like weapon during the attack in Washington D.C. Taake was released from a federal prison in Florence, Colorado, on Jan. 20, after he and more than 1,500 others involved in the insurrection were pardoned by Trump on his first day in office.
At the end Trump’s first stint as president in 2021, a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol and disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that convened to certify the 2020 presidential election results in favor of Joe Biden. Taake pleaded guilty for his role in the attack in December 2023.
On Monday, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare confirmed in a statement to Houston Public Media that Taake is still wanted under a pending state warrant for the alleged online solicitation of a minor in 2016.
Teare said his office had asked federal authorities to hold Taake in Colorado, due to his pending warrant in Texas, but that Taake was still released despite the DA's office faxing a copy of the warrant to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Jan. 15, five days before he was pardoned.
The DA's office is now working to locate and arrest Taake, Teare said.
"Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending state warrants, will require significant resources," Teare said in his 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."
According to county court documents, Taake is accused of pursuing a sexual relationship with an individual who he knew to be under the age of 17 via an online messaging service. The case against Taake was still pending in Harris County when he was arrested by the FBI in July 2021 for his actions on Jan. 6.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Taake was released on Jan. 20 in compliance with Trump’s pardon but declined to comment on why he was not held on the unrelated warrant in Texas.
"For privacy, safety, and security reasons, 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," a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said in a statement to Houston Public Media.
Trump's pardon specifically issued a "complete and unconditional pardon" for those "convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021." No other potential crimes were mentioned in the pardon.
"The individual was identified among a list of defendants to which the pardons would apply,” the Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said. “... The language included notes inmates currently held in prison should be released immediately. Our interpretation is if they were on our list and were in prison, they were to be released."
Taake was among more than a dozen people from the Houston area who were either charged or convicted of crimes related to the 2021 insurrection, according to a database compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Taake was charged with assaulting officers during the insurrection after he spoke about his involvement in the riot with a woman on the Bumble dating app, according to federal court documents. Body camera footage from officers at the Capitol, along with other photos and videos posted to social media, showed Taake spraying police with bear spray and then striking them with a metal, whip-like weapon.