Former President Trump posted on social media what he said was the address of former President Obama soon before a January 6 suspect with firearms was arrested near the home, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
Taylor Taranto, 37, was arrested on June 29 when Secret Service agents spotted him several blocks from Obama’s Washington DC residence.
That day, according to a court filing, Taranto reposted a Truth Social post from Trump containing the Obama’s home address, writing, “We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s.”
Taranto was making a reference Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Democratic Presidential Campaign Chair John Podesta.
On June 28, Trump had posted on his Truth Social page an article from “The Phyllis Schlafley Report” from April 2017 that included the line, “Barack and Michelle Obama moved to a $5 million mansion,” giving the address and stating that the location was “two miles from the White House.”
As of Thursday morning, the article with the Obamas’ address was still on Trump’s Truth Social page.
In a court memo Wednesday, federal prosecutors revealed that Taranto was streaming live on YouTube on June 28 when he said he was headed with a detonator to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within the Commerce Department headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
When Taranto was arrested on June 29, authorities found no explosives inside his van. However, they did find “hundreds of rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition and two firearms” and a machete. A Metropolitan Police K9 unit also detected gunpowder inside the vehicle.
Along with the Obamas, prosecutors say Taranto threatened members of Congress, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the latter of whom was on last year’s House Select January 6 Committee.
The feds further allege that on June 18, Taranto and some associates live-streamed their entry into an elementary school in Maryland near Raskin’s home.
Taranto had been wanted on an arrest warrant on four misdemeanor charges related to January 6. Prosecutors said Thursday that they plan to bring felony charges against him.
PHOTO: Taylor Taranto on January 6 per DOJ charging documents
