SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento County man, who was convicted for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol and later pardoned by President Donald Trump, was convicted on Tuesday of possessing child pornography.

After a one‑day trial, a jury in federal court found Kyle Travis Colton, 37, of Citrus Heights, guilty of one count of receiving child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release.

Federal prosecutors said investigators searched Colton’s home and found his laptop with “copious images and videos depicting the graphic sexual abuse of young children.”

In the trial, prosecutors said evidence presented to the jury showed Colton downloaded the child porn from July 2022 through December 2023. A court document, however, alleges that that Colton was collecting child porn as far back as 2010, including while he was a schoolteacher overseas.

Colton was among the roughly 1,500 people convicted in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and pardoned by Trump on the same day he was inaugurated for his second term in office.

The January 2021 violence led to the deaths of at least nine Capitol Police officers in the days and weeks after the attack and hundreds more who were injured. Four people in the crowd died including one shot dead by police; and another believed trampled to death by other rioters.

Colton was charged in Washington, D.C., in December 2023 with obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, entering or remaining in a restricted building without authority, disorderly conduct in a restricted building and on Capitol grounds and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, in connection with the assault on the Capitol.

Federal law enforcement agents said Colton was among the protesters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; prosecutors’ charging documents alleged he grabbed a rioter’s flagpole and used it to assault a Capitol officer before giving the makeshift weapon to another rioter.

Colton came to the FBI’s attention in the Jan. 6 case after receiving a tip that he bragged to passengers on a plane returning to California the following day, that he was in the “second wave” of protesters who breached the U.S. Capitol building, court records show.

On June 8, Colton’s federal public defender filed a motion to dismiss the child porn case against her client. Heather E. Williams argued in the filed court document that the child porn case is covered by Trump’s presidential pardon for crimes Colton committed and pleaded guilty to, as well as any “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol.”

“Mr. Colton pled guilty and expressed remorse for his conduct on January 6th, but his child pornography case is not the typical case where a defendant is found because he was distributing or sharing,” Williams said in the motion to dismiss. “This indictment is based only on evidence found in an investigation which was looking for a conspiracy which did not exist.”

In a filed opposition to the defense’s dismissal motion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office called Colton “a prolific collector of child sexual abuse material” who had more than 2,500 child porn images and videos on his laptop that investigators discovered while serving a separate search warrant.

Prosecutors said Colton received and possessed child sexual abuse material from as early as 2010 through 2023, including material he downloaded while he was an elementary school teacher in China and while he lived in California.

In February 2024, Colton was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bail bond and has remained free pending the conclusion of his federal criminal case.

Colton is scheduled to return Oct. 27 for his sentencing in federal court in Sacramento. Prosecutors said Colton faces a sentence of five to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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