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Samuel Lazar

Pardoned January 6 defendant

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Samuel Lazar is an Ephrata man out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the clearest thing in his record is this: his family never quit on him. His brother and sister sat in that federal courtroom for him. When he walked out, his sister put the pictures up for everybody to see. Now here is what makes Samuel Lazar different from almost every other name in this archive. FACT: his federal docket was sealed. Convicted behind a closed door. Sentenced behind a closed door. No public plea agreement. No public sentencing transcript. Reporters at WITF, WHYY, the Washington Times, NBC News and LancasterOnline all went looking, and all of them came back with the same answer. The paper is not public. Think about what that means. Most people in this country get a public trial in a public courtroom with a public record. He did not get that, and nobody in the government will say why. FACT: Samuel Lazar was arrested July 26, 2021 and charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, case 1:21-mj-533. Initial appearance July 27, 2021. FACT: on July 18, 2023 the Bureau of Prisons moved him out of federal prison and into a residential reentry facility in Philadelphia. His own attorney of record told WITF she had not been told he was released. Source: WITF and LancasterOnline, July 19, 2023. NEEDS AUTHENTICATION: the counts of conviction, the length of sentence, and the terms of release for Samuel Lazar. That is not an oversight in this file. The court file is sealed. We do not publish what we cannot cite. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE: press reporting has offered theories about why a January 6 case would be sealed. Theories are not the record. This archive will publish the conviction and the sentence the day the docket is unsealed, and not one day before. The January 20, 2025 presidential proclamation granted full pardons for offenses related to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. NEEDS AUTHENTICATION: whether a certificate has issued in his name, which is also not publicly verifiable while the file is sealed. Case record: 1:21-mj-533, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Arrested July 26, 2021. Docket sealed. This profile is unclaimed. If this is you, or your family, claiming it is free, forever.