WASHINGTON — The Justice Department placed two federal prosecutors on administrative leave after they described the Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by President Donald Trump as a "mob of rioters," five people familiar with the situation told NBC News.

The prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, used the phrase in a sentencing memo filed Tuesday in the case of Taylor Taranto, a MAGA enthusiast who prosecutors say stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was involved in a "scuffle" with police officers trying to force the mob out of the building.

While Trump pardoned Taranto and about 1,500 other Jan. 6 rioters , the pardon did not cover Taranto's other actions in 2023, when, prosecutors said, he perpetuated a bomb hoax and then showed up to former President Barack Obama's neighborhood

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