A Texas man has been arrested on an outstanding charge of soliciting a minor, more than two weeks after he was freed from prison upon receiving a Jan. 6 pardon from President Donald Trump.
Andrew Taake, 36, was arrested Thursday in Leon County, Texas, by a Houston-area fugitive task force, authorities said. According to court documents, he is accused of sending sexually explicit messages in 2016 to an undercover police officer who was posing as a teenager. (Houston Public Media reported that the defense attorney listed for Taake did not immediately return its request for comment.)
According to federal prosecutors, Taake deployed bear spray on Capitol Police officers several times and also hit an officer with a metal whip.
In his Jan. 6 case, Taake was sentenced to more than six years in prison after pleading guilty to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. According to federal prosecutors, Taake deployed bear spray on Capitol Police officers several times and also hit an officer with a metal whip.
Taake was on pretrial release in the Texas case on Jan. 6. Later that day, he detailed his actions during the Capitol attack to a woman on an online dating app and she reported him to the FBI, according to prosecutors. He was arrested in July 2021.
Taake was serving time in a federal facility in Colorado when Trump issued his sweeping pardon of Jan. 6 defendants on his first day back in the White House. Although authorities in Texas said they had previously requested that Taake continue to be detained by federal officials, he was nevertheless released on Jan. 20.
Taake is not the only Jan. 6 defendant to have been arrested again on an outstanding charge. Another defendant pardoned by Trump, Theodore Middendorf, remains in custody in Illinois to serve a 19-year sentence for sexually assaulting a child.
