By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department placed two prosecutors on leave on Wednesday, hours after they referred to Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as “a mob of rioters” in a sentencing memo, said four people familiar with the matter.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia were placed on administrative leave and locked out of their government devices, one day before their scheduled appearance in federal court on Thursday for Taylor Taranto’s sentencing.

Taranto was convicted on gun charges after driving to former President Barack Obama’s Washington neighborhood in June 2023, shortly after then-former President Donald Trump posted what he asserted was Obama’s address online.

ABC News first re

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