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Thomas Edward Caldwell

Retired Navy intelligence officer · pardoned January 6 defendant

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Thomas Edward Caldwell is a retired United States Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Virginia. He served this country in uniform. Then this country tried him for seditious conspiracy and lost. Start with the jury. Not the press release. The jury. On November 29, 2022, a federal jury in Washington acquitted Thomas Caldwell of seditious conspiracy and of the other conspiracy counts the government brought against him. Acquitted. Twelve Americans heard the government case and said no. [FACT: contemporaneous court reporting; DOJ verdict release] He never went inside the building. The Justice Department's own verdict release states that Caldwell remained outside the Capitol. Public court reporting states he did not enter and was not accused of assaulting an officer. [FACT: DOJ verdict release; court reporting] The jury did convict him on two counts: obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents or proceedings. [FACT: DOJ verdict release] Then the Supreme Court got involved. On June 28, 2024, in Fischer v. United States, the Supreme Court narrowed the federal obstruction statute the government had been using against January 6 defendants across the board. The district court later dismissed Thomas Caldwell's obstruction conviction under that ruling. [FACT: Fischer v. United States; district court docket] That left one count standing out of everything the government threw at a retired Navy intelligence officer. On January 10, 2025, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta sentenced Thomas Edward Caldwell to time served, roughly 53 days he had already spent in custody after his January 2021 arrest. Reporting states the court imposed no additional supervised release. [FACT: court reporting] Then came two separate acts of clemency, and they are not the same thing. One. On January 20, 2025, President Trump's January 6 clemency proclamation specifically named Thomas Caldwell among 14 people whose sentences were commuted to time served. [FACT: White House proclamation, January 20, 2025] Two. On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued Thomas Caldwell a separate full and unconditional pardon for the remaining offense in case 1:22-cr-15. The Office of the Pardon Attorney identifies that offense as tampering with documents or proceedings. The official two page pardon document is linked in this archive. [FACT: Office of the Pardon Attorney] A pardon is an act of executive clemency. It is not a court's finding about the underlying facts. And a conviction is not a verdict on a man's whole life. Here is what the record does not lie about. Thomas Edward Caldwell was acquitted of sedition. He stayed outside the building. He was never accused of assaulting an officer. His obstruction conviction was thrown out by the Supreme Court's reading of the law. He was sentenced to time served. He was commuted. He was pardoned. THE RECORD United States v. Rhodes, III et al., Case 1:22-cr-15, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Amit P. Mehta. Arrested January 19, 2021. Jury verdict November 29, 2022. Acquitted of seditious conspiracy and the other conspiracy counts. Obstruction conviction dismissed post Fischer. Sentenced January 10, 2025 to time served. Sentence commuted January 20, 2025. Full and unconditional pardon March 20, 2025. This profile is unclaimed. If this is you, or your family, claiming it is free, forever.