A convicted Jan. 6 rioter from South Carolina has been hired by the Trump administration to work in a Pentagon office “that manages highly classified military operations,” according to a report in The Washington Post.

The report about convicted Jan. 6 defendant Elias Irizarry now working in the Pentagon was based on four unnamed sources. It is full of details about Irizarry’s arrest and conviction already reported in more than 20 stories about him and his co-defendants over the years by The State newspaper.

Irizarry works in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office and some staff are questioning how anyone convicted in the attack on the Capitol “could be trusted for such a sensitive role in the U.S. government,” the Post reported.

Irizarry, now 24 and who had just turned 19 at the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was a Citadel student midway through his freshman year when he traveled to Washington with two friends to attend President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and participated in breaking into the Capitol, according to court records.

Although Trump continues to falsely assert Democrats committed fraud so Joe Biden could win the November 2020 presidential election, no evidence has ever been produced that would prove such a claim. Some 60 lawsuits by Trump allies in swing states were tossed out of court for lack of evidence or other failures to bring a valid claim of election fraud.

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez had this comment on The Post’s story: “Mr. Elias Irizarry is a qualified, patriotic young professional, and we are proud to have him as a political appointee at the Department of War. Unlike Mr. Irizarry, the Washington Post does not care about national security given its track record of low-tier reporters publishing and soliciting classified information that could hurt our nation on a daily basis.”

Valdez did not provide information to The State on who appointed Irizarry to his job.

Irizarry could not be reached by phone or text.

After Irizarry’s arrest in March 2021 by the FBI, Citadel officials allowed him to stay in school, where he remained until he pled guilty in October 2023 to entering and remaining in a restricted building (the Capitol). Other charges against him including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building were dropped as part of a plea deal.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Irizarry on March 15, 2023, to 14 days confinement.

The Post reported that the office that Irizarry is assigned to covers irregular warfare and counterterrorism. The office’s team “comprises about 40 people, and its portfolio includes operations such as embassy security, personnel recovery and hostage rescue,” The Post reported.

The work Irizarry is doing is “among the most delicate that the Pentagon performs. All positions ... require a top-secret security clearance,” The Post reported.

Overwhelming evidence

Evidence that convicted Irizarry was overwhelming. It included numerous photos of Irizarry inside the Capitol, holding a metal pole. People who knew Irizarry had turned him in. Irizarry also admitted his crime to FBI agents.

In court records publicly available on a federal judicial database, two views emerge of Irizarry.

In one narrative, he is deeply repentant and ashamed of being part of the mob that attacked the Capitol. The Capitol was closed to visitors that day, a day when Congress met to certify the electoral votes cast for candidates in the November 2020 election. Anyone other than members of Congress and staff entering the building was doing so illegally.

“January 6th represented something truly horrible,” Irizarry told Judge Chutkan at his 2023 sentencing hearing. “It was the largest attack on our democracy since the Civil War. The idea of Americans being willing to fight other Americans and tear down the very institutions that millions of other Americans sacrificed and built and protect is horrible.

“It is something I have to live with being a part of. I don’t know what I can do to make it right. But first, I apologize for my part and my complicity in the events of that day. I apologize to the Capitol Police and all of the victims of January 6th,” Irizarry told the judge, according to a hearing transcript.

Irizarry apologized

“I want to apologize to the widows of Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers like Officer Sicknick, Officer Smith, Officer Liebengood, Officer Hashida and Officer deFreytag, who have to bury their partners because of that horrible day,” Irizarry said, referring to officers who died in the aftermath of the attack. “I want to thank the law enforcement officers who, while outnumbered, fought and sacrificed to defend our democracy.”

In a sentencing memo, Irizarry’s lawyer, federal public defender Eugene Ohm, wrote the judge that his client is not “and has never been an ‘election denier,’ he was skeptical of some right wing talking points and entirely dismissive of their conspiracy theories.”

Ohm also stressed that Irizarry “did not engage in any violence or destruction that day. He did not dress prepared for violence. He did not confront any police officers. He did not go into any restricted area. He did not encourage anyone to do anything. He did not steal anything. He did not do anything to disrespect the Capitol or the institution, such as drink alcohol or ingest drugs. He looked for his acquaintance, took some photographs, walked with him and left. He did not even yell or chant.”

Prosecutors: Irizarry part of “violent riot”

A different narrative emerges from prosecution records.

Before entering the Capitol Irizarry “directed and encouraged rioters toward the Capitol building” and knew well that he was in the middle of a riot,” according to a prosecution sentencing memo by assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Akers.

Irizarry “observed broken bicycle racks and fencing from the restricted perimeter, saw and smelled tear gas, saw rioters violently attack officers on the West front, and saw lines of police trying to block the crowd from progressing but continued towards the Capitol,” the prosecution memo said.

To gain access to the Capitol, Irizarry entered through a shattered window at the Senate Wing Door and he “armed himself with a metal pole that he carried throughout the Capitol grounds and building,” the prosecution memo said.

Moreover, at the time of the riot, Irizarry was a member of the United States Civilian Air Patrol, a federally-supported public entity devoted to public safety, and thus betrayed his duty to “keep the homeland safe,” the prosecution memo said.

Irizarry’s conduct took place “in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm police officers who were trying to prevent a breach of the Capitol Building and disrupt the proceedings,” the prosecution memo said.

After spending 27 minutes inside the Capitol, Irizarry remained outside the building for more than an hour and a half, “joining chants on the East steps where officers attempted to gain control of the area, marching through the East plaza, and sitting on government vehicles parked outside the Capitol,” the prosecution memo said.

Prosecutors also noted that when the FBI reviewed records on Irizarry’s cell phone, they found “a gap of data between Jan. 1, 2021 and Jan. 8, 2021, which suggests that Irizarry deleted information from his cell phone pertaining to his involvement on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Moreover, after Irizarry’s arrest, he was determined to figure out who “backstabbed” him by “turning him in” to authorities, the prosecutor’s memo said.

“Irizarry discussed via text message how the FBI found out that he went inside the Capitol and who turned him in. Between late January and early March 2021, Irizarry also exchanged text messages with co-defendant ... about joining the Russian Military if they were not permitted to remain in the U.S. Military due to the ‘FBI Stuff’,” the prosecutor’s memo said.

Top student, good character

One thing that both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on: Irizarry had an exemplary record of public service and a superlative academic record at The Citadel. Numerous people including Citadel professors wrote the judge testifying about his good character and achievements.

Judge Chutkan was so impressed with Irizarry’s record and his repentance that she offered to write him a letter of recommendation for him to The Citadel, Irizarry’s attorney told The State in 2023.

In the spring of 2023, Irizarry worked for a time as a page at the S.C. State House assigned to that chamber’s agriculture and natural resources committee. In 2024, Irizarry lost a bid in the Republican primary to run for a York County seat in the S.C. House.

In May 2024, Irizarry graduated from The Citadel, according to the college.

“A second chance”

David O’Neal of Tega Cay represented S.C. House District 66 as a Republican until his retirement in 2024 and hired Irizarry as a page in the General Assembly after Irizarry’s sentencing for Jan. 6.

“He did a fantastic job as a page,” O’Neal, a former Tega Cay mayor, said Wednesday. O’Neal said he knows Irizarry and his family and that Irizarry is “a patriot.”

O’Neal said he remains in contact with Irizarry now that Irizarry has moved to the Washington, D.C., area and is proud that Irizarry has done well in his federal job.

He said Irizarry was still a teenager in 2021 and “he kinda got caught up in a moment.” In college in the spring of 2024, Irizarry would drive from Charleston to Columbia to work as a statehouse page to get experience in politics and government.

Now, after college, he can help the country in his defense department role, O’Neal said. “Everybody gets a second chance,” O’Neal said.

Since Trump took office, the Justice Department has deleted its thousands of pages of press releases and other information about those arrested and convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Nearly 1,600 people were arrested, many of whom had pleaded guilty. In January 2025, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of everyone charged or convicted in the event.

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