A former FBI agent accused of inciting Donald Trump supporters to kill police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has been given a job in the Department of Justice.
Jared Wise, who was charged but later pardoned by Trump along with more than 1,500 others connected to the 2021 Capitol riot, will serve as a counselor to Ed Martin, director of the “Weaponization Working Group,” The New York Times reported.
The newly formed group, established by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February, was tasked with reviewing “politicized” actions against Trump but has been accused of being another example of the president using federal agencies for retribution against his political enemies.
Martin was put in charge of the weaponization group in May after his nomination for the top U.S. attorney post in Washington, D.C., was pulled because he spent years defending and even raising money for Jan. 6 defendants.
It’s unclear what specific role Wise, who worked as an FBI agent and supervisor between 2004 and 2017, will have while working for Martin. One unnamed source told the Times that if the Weaponization Working Group could “genetically design an adviser” for Martin, that person would look like Wise.
One of the tasks Bondi assigned to the group is examining whether there were any “unethical prosecutions” related to the Jan. 6 attack. The group will also investigate any alleged “weaponization” of prosecutions brought by federal and state prosecutors involving Trump.
The DOJ indicted Wise over his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack in June 2023. Wise, of Bend, Oregon, was charged with multiple offenses, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers.
Police camera footage showed Wise yelling at officers, “You’re disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo,” during the chaos at the Capitol.
When rioters began attacking police officers and knocking them to the ground, Wise allegedly incited further violence by repeatedly shouting, “Kill ’em,” according to the indictment.
Wise has denied the charges against him and claimed in July 2024 court filings that he was the victim of “selective prosecution, selective enforcement, and vindictive prosecution.”
Wise was on trial in Washington when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. One of the president’s first acts of his second term was to pardon or grant commutations to more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including some of the most violent offenders.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
