Shane Jenkins: January 6 Conviction, Pardon, and White House Visit

Shane Jenkins is a Houston man convicted of nine federal crimes for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he used a tomahawk axe to smash a window and threw objects at police officers. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in October 2023, released in January 2025 after President Donald Trump pardoned him along with more than 1,500 other January 6 defendants, and visited the White House as a guest four months later.

What He Did at the Capitol

Jenkins flew from Houston to Washington, D.C., the day before the rally near the White House. Prosecutors said he brought two tomahawk axes with him, expecting what he described as “a war popping off” and a “medieval melee style battle” over what he believed was a stolen 2020 election.¹

At the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, Jenkins struck a windowpane six times with a metal tomahawk. It was the first window broken at that location.² Once the window was open, other rioters climbed inside, tore apart furniture, and passed the pieces back out as makeshift weapons against the police officers holding a tunnel entrance. Jenkins himself threw a wooden desk drawer, a flagpole, a metal walking stick, and other objects at the officers.³

How He Was Identified and Arrested

The FBI opened its investigation after receiving a tip pointing to public video that appeared to show Jenkins smashing the window with a metal survival hatchet. Agents matched him through Capitol security footage, officers’ body-worn cameras, and his own posts on Facebook and Twitter. His distinctive tattoos, including the words “MAMA TRIED” across his neck, helped confirm his identity, and a parole officer who had supervised him for years also recognized him from the images. Agents arrested Jenkins at his home in northwest Houston on the morning of March 5, 2021.⁴

The Nine Convictions

Jenkins rejected a plea deal and went to trial. In March 2023, a federal jury convicted him of seven felonies and two misdemeanors. The felony counts were corruptly obstructing an official proceeding of Congress; assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon; destruction of government property; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder. The misdemeanors were disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.⁵

The “Political Prisoner” Brand and a Jail Assault

While awaiting sentencing, Jenkins became the face of a website selling merchandise that cast January 6 defendants as political prisoners. It featured a cartoon avatar of him called “Skullet” and a logo of crossed tomahawks under the Capitol dome, along with T-shirts, hoodies, hats, and tote bags carrying slogans such as “Free the J6 political prisoners” and “Want my vote? Help the J6ers.”⁶ Prosecutors said Jenkins used a separate fundraising platform to collect more than $118,000 in donations. His trial attorney, Dennis Boyle, said Jenkins did not own the merchandise site and had not received money from sales, but could not say who did own it.

In July 2023, Jenkins and roughly a dozen other inmates at a Washington, D.C., jail attacked another January 6 defendant, Taylor Taranto, in a television room. Prosecutors said the assault was prompted by remarks Taranto had made about Ashli Babbitt and her mother, and cited the attack as an aggravating factor at sentencing.⁷

Seven-Year Sentence

On October 6, 2023, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Jenkins to 84 months in federal prison. Prosecutors had asked for 236 months, roughly 19 and a half years, and sought a terrorism enhancement on the destruction of property count, calling Jenkins “a top tier rioter” and “one of the worst Jan. 6 offenders.”³

Judge Mehta declined to apply the terrorism enhancement, finding Jenkins had acted on his own rather than as part of a coordinated conspiracy, and denied a request for a fine of at least $118,888. He was blunt about the “Skullet” fundraising, calling it “shameful” and telling Jenkins: “What bothers me about this notion of being a political prisoner is it continues to fuel the lie that somehow an election was stolen, that somehow people who are being charged because of their actions and not their beliefs are the victims. That is false.”⁸ Assistant U.S. Attorney David Perri told the court that Jenkins’s “lack of remorse is extraordinary” and that he “thinks that political violence is acceptable.”⁷

Pardon and Early Release

On January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, President Trump issued full, complete, and unconditional pardons to more than 1,500 people charged or convicted over the January 6 attack, and commuted the sentences of 14 others, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.⁹ Jenkins was among those pardoned and walked out of prison roughly three years into his seven-year term.¹⁰

The clemency drew heavy criticism. A group of Democratic senators led by Edward Markey introduced a resolution condemning the pardons of people convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers, noting that 169 of the pardoned defendants had pleaded guilty to assaulting officers. Former Capitol Police officer Winston Pingeon said the pardons “completely erased” any sense of justice and accountability, and a former January 6 prosecutor described them as a “get-out-of-jail-free card.”¹¹

Visit to the White House

On May 18, 2025, about four months after his release, Jenkins visited the White House with another pardoned January 6 defendant, Dominic Box. The two toured the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, and the press briefing room, where Jenkins stood behind the lectern and recorded a video posted to X. “What a blessing it is to be here,” he said. “From the ‘Big House’ to the White House in just about 120 days.”¹²

The visit fell on a Sunday, outside the regular public tour schedule. The Secret Service said both men went through a “rigorous security screening” before being admitted, and there was no indication either met with President Trump, who spent most of that day at his golf club in Virginia.¹³ Jenkins would not say who arranged the visit, saying he was “not at liberty” to identify the person, and added that “J6 Hostages were wronged and will be welcomed to the White House.”¹²

Speaking to NPR, Jenkins maintained that he had not injured any officers and called his actions “justified.” He rejected his former trial attorney’s description of him as a victim of “the poisonous propaganda of a former President,” saying: “We were standing not for Trump but in opposition to a stolen election. It was my duty as a citizen to object.” He added: “I’m thankful no one was hurt by what I did but am I sorry, f— no!”¹⁴

His Background Before January 6

Prosecutors described Jenkins as having an “extensive” criminal record dating to the late 1990s, including prior assault convictions. Boyle, his defense attorney, said Jenkins had grown up in an abusive and tumultuous home. In 1997, when Jenkins was 20, he shot and killed his stepfather. Jenkins testified that his stepfather had pointed a shotgun at him and threatened to kill him; the murder charges were dropped, and he was never prosecuted for the killing.¹

1
Spectrum News. Man Who Attacked Capitol With Tomahawk and Now Promotes Jan. 6 Merchandise Gets 7 Years in Prison
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AP News. Shane Jenkins
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Courthouse News Service. Capitol Rioter Who Wielded a Tomahawk Ax Sentenced to 7 Years Behind Bars
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KERA News. Houston Man Arrested After Wielding Hatchet at U.S. Capitol Insurrection, FBI Says
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Houston Public Media. Houston Man Who Wielded Tomahawk Axe at U.S. Capitol Insurrection Convicted of Nine Related Crimes
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The Daily Record. Man Who Attacked Capitol With Tomahawk and Now Promotes Jan. 6 Merchandise Gets Prison
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NBC News. Shane Jenkins, Trump Supporter, Jan. 6 Riot Prison 7 Years
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Fox 5 DC. Capitol Rioter Who Helped Sell Jan. 6 Merchandise From Jail Sentenced 7 Years Prison
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U.S. Senator Ed Markey. Sen. Markey Joins Colleagues in Introducing Resolution Condemning Pardons of Individuals Found Guilty of Assaulting Capitol Police Officers
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Houston Public Media. Criminal Records of Jan. 6 Rioters Pardoned by Trump Include Rape, Domestic Violence
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ABC News. A Year On, Jan. 6 Rioters Emboldened by Trump’s Pardons
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Houston Chronicle. Shane Jenkins January 6 White House
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NPR. Trump Jan. 6 White House
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Houston Public Media. A Jan. 6 Rioter Convicted of Assaulting Police Scored a Visit to the White House