Trump admin stuns by appointing convicted Jan. 6 rioter to major counterterrorism role

President Donald Trump's administration stunned political analysts and observers on Tuesday by appointing a convicted Jan. 6 rioter to a key counterterrorism job, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported that Trump appointed Elias Irizarry to a job in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office. The office " oversees and advocates for Special Operations and Irregular Warfare throughout the Department of War to ensure these capabilities are resourced, ready, and properly employed in accordance with the National Defense Strategy," according to its website.

Irizarry was 19 and a freshman at The Citadel at the time he participated in the Capitol riot, according to the report. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering a restricted area and was sentenced to 14 days in jail, it added.

Irizarry was appointed at a time when the Trump administration had adopted a new national security protocol that defined "violent left-wing groups" as domestic terror threats, which sparked concerns that it could be used to go after anyone Trump defines as his political enemy.

The move sparked swift backlash.

“In the case of rescue/extraction missions, it can place our special operators in some of the most complex and dangerous environments we ask of them,” one person familiar with Irizarry’s hiring told The Post. “To put someone so junior and new to DOD, and with such a checkered background, into such a sensitive portfolio raises serious questions for leadership.”

Political analysts and observers also reacted to the news on social media.

"When I was a reporter at the[Post and Courier], I covered the Elias Irizarry case. He was a cadet at the Citadel, and was kicked out of the senior military college’s Republican Society post-Jan. 6," Thomas Novelly, an air and space warfare reporter at Defense One, posted on X. "When I called him for comment, he gave the phone to his mom."

"Under any other president, this would be Scandal of the Year. Under Trump, it is merely the Scandal of the Hour," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, posted on X.

"To all the aspiring national security professionals out there, AI won't take your job. A convicted Jan 6 rioter will. Hope that helps," Barratt Dewey, who writes the "Tectonic Defense" newsletter, posted on X.