The department has increasingly taken the position that criminal behavior discovered during an investigation stemming from a suspect’s role in the Capitol attack is in fact related to Jan. 6.

A Justice Department prosecutor struggled in court on Wednesday to articulate the administration's view of the full intention of President Donald Trump's mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters, as the government argued that Trump's pardon should apply to separate criminal conduct committed by Capitol rioter Dan Wilson in Kentucky in 2023.

Investigators seized six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition when they searched Wilson's home in June 2022.

Prosecutors are siding with some defendants who argue the pardon absolves them of additional offenses, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot.

Donald Trump may have pardoned Kentuckian Dan Wilson for crimes he committed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that pardon did not extend to his unrelated conviction for illegally storing firearms at his home.