A man pardoned by President Trump who intended to attend the January 6, 2021, protests but was delayed by car trouble and arrived after the riot had ended has been charged with a new federal crime after allegedly posting online that every federal judge connected to January 6 cases would be executed. Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. is accused of transmitting an interstate threat, a felony, in connection with a Facebook post federal investigators say he wrote in April 2026.
Charges Filed Under Seal in Atlanta
According to a criminal complaint filed under seal on October 29 in federal court in Atlanta, Meredith was charged with transmitting interstate threats, as reported by Raw Story. The complaint centers on a Facebook post the FBI says Meredith wrote on April 23, 2026, which included the words “ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!,” according to Mediaite. Per the FBI, the threat was directed at officials in Washington, D.C., and allegedly made from Georgia.
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Elizabeth McBath signed off on the complaint, finding probable cause to believe Meredith violated 18 U.S. Code Section 875(c), the outlet reports. That statute, according to the United States Code, prohibits transmitting in interstate or foreign commerce a communication containing a threat to kidnap or injure another person, and carries a penalty of a fine, up to five years in prison, or both. A probable-cause finding is not a determination of guilt, and the outcome of the new charge has not been established.
How Investigators Say They Traced the Post
Investigators linked the Facebook account to Meredith using records obtained from Meta, T-Mobile and Google, per the same Raw Story account. The account was reportedly accessed from a device in Georgia on the night the post went up.
FBI Special Agent Richard Taylor said agents had already interviewed Meredith twice before the new charge was filed — once on or about November 12, 2024, and again on or about August 14, 2025 — in part because of earlier social media posts that appeared threatening, Mediaite reported.
A Pardon, Then a Prior Threat Case
Trump pardoned Meredith on January 20, 2025, as part of a proclamation covering offenses tied to the Capitol attack, according to Raw Story's reporting; the same proclamation extended clemency to more than a thousand others charged in connection with January 6, per Newsweek. Meredith intended to attend the January 6 protests but was delayed by car trouble and reached Washington, D.C., a day after the attack, Newsweek reports.
This is not Meredith's first brush with federal threat charges. He pleaded guilty in September 2021 to a felony count of threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to BuzzFeed News, and was sentenced to 28 months in prison plus three years of supervised release, Mediaite reported. Newsweek's reporting states the earlier threat involved Meredith saying he would shoot Pelosi in the head.
Part of a Broader Pattern
Meredith's case is not an isolated one. Mediaite reported that multiple people pardoned for January 6-related conduct have since faced new criminal charges for unrelated crimes, and The Daily Beast, citing a Lawfare analysis, reported that nearly 100 pardoned January 6 rioters have gone on to reoffend. At the time of its original September 2021 report on Meredith's Pelosi case, BuzzFeed News noted that more than 50 people involved in the Capitol riot had already agreed to plea deals with federal prosecutors.
