Pentagon hires Jan. 6 convict Elias Irizarry into a sensitive DoD counterterrorism role

On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, the Department of Defense confirmed that it had hired Elias Irizarry — a man convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol — to work in the Pentagon office that oversees sensitive special operations and irregular-warfare matters. Irizarry was appointed as a political appointee in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC), in its irregular-warfare and counterterrorism section, a role that performs oversight of special-operations forces and special-access programs and requires a top-secret security clearance. The Washington Post first reported the placement; The Hill and other outlets independently confirmed it.

Irizarry was 19 and a freshman at The Citadel when, according to court records, he traveled from South Carolina to Washington and entered the Capitol through a broken window. He pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and was sentenced to 14 days in jail; at his 2023 sentencing he disavowed his conduct, calling January 6 "the largest attack on our democracy since the Civil War." Like other January 6 defendants, he was subsequently pardoned. The internal alarm reported over the hire centered on entrusting a person convicted in the Capitol assault with a sensitive national-security post.

The Pentagon defended the appointment, telling reporters that Irizarry is a "qualified, patriotic young professional" and that the department was "proud to have him as a political appointee." Placing an individual into a sensitive defense and counterterrorism role on the basis of demonstrated political loyalty rather than established suitability fits the pattern of politicized defense appointments and raises civilian-control concerns, consistent with a broader pattern of loyalty-based national-security staffing under the administration.