Pentagon Taps Teen Jan. 6er for High-Stakes Counterterrorism Role
The Trump administration has hired a convicted Jan. 6 Capitol rioter to work inside a Pentagon office that handles some of the military’s most sensitive operations.
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Elias Irizarry, who was 19 when he broke into the Capitol with a mob of Donald Trump supporters, has been appointed to a post in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office, where he is assigned to its irregular warfare and counterterrorism section, The Washington Post reports.
The 24-year-old’s hiring has raised red flags among staff, who are questioning his suitability for the highly sensitive government role, four people familiar with the matter told the Post. Two people said the work ranks among the most delicate tasks handled by the Pentagon, with all roles requiring top-secret clearance.
“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 said. “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.”
The Pentagon unit Irizarry has been appointed to oversees operations including embassy security, personnel recovery, and hostage rescue.
Irizarry, the son of soap opera star Vincent Irizarry, has said he regrets taking part in the 2021 Capitol attack.
A freshman at South Carolina’s public military college The Citadel at the time, Irizarry traveled to Washington, D.C., with two other men and joined the mob that broke into the Capitol.
Prosecutors said that he entered the Capitol through a broken window while holding a metal pole, but did not strike anyone, according to the Post.
Irizarry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering and remaining in a restricted area and received a 14-day jail sentence, the Post reports.
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“I am ashamed because I will always be a part of this disgrace,” Irizarry said at his sentencing in 2023. “January 6th represented something truly horrible; it was the largest attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Irizarry was among the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump on his first day back in the White House last year.
When reached for comment, Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez defended Irizarry’s appointment and attacked the Post.
“Mr. Elias Irizarry is a qualified, patriotic young professional, and we are proud to have him as a political appointee at the Department of War,” Valdez said in a statement. “Unlike Mr. Irizarry, the Washington Post does not care about national security given its track record of low-tier reporters publishing and soliciting classified information that could hurt our nation on a daily basis.”
It’s unclear who within the Trump administration appointed him to the post.
Irizarry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although he was discharged from The Citadel for his participation in the attack on the Capitol, he was readmitted in 2023 and graduated in 2024.
Irizarry’s LinkedIn profile cites “Patriot” as his profession since January 2024, according to the Post.
In 2024, he ran for a South Carolina state House seat, losing in the Republican primary to state Rep. Randy Ligon, who was endorsed by Trump.
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