A Massachusetts man pardoned by President Donald Trump for participating in the 2021 insurrection has been sentenced to four years in federal prison after possessing more than 100,000 files of child sexual abuse material and images of animal torture.
Daniel Tocci, 31, was sentenced in Springfield to 48 months in prison and five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child sexual abuse material stemming from a 2023 search of his Amherst home, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of at least 70 months, or more than five and a half years, arguing that the large number of people victimized in his media collection, and the number of violent videos he possessed, make him “a particularly dangerous individual.”
U.S. Court for the District of Columbia
“The requested sentence reflects the seriousness of Defendant’s crime, and the terrible toll Defendant’s crime has taken on his victims,” they said in court documents.
The media recovered from his home included more than 100,000 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of minors, including children as young as 3, authorities said.
A search of his laptop also found images of a cat being killed by a blender, a female being shot in the head, a dog being beaten to death, images and videos of bestiality, and images of severed body parts. Tocci’s devices were also used to look up “countries with legal prostitution under 18” online, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said they received “numerous” impact statements from child abuse victims who were victimized by the content recovered from Tocci’s home, some of which were shared with the court.
“As evidenced by the impact letters provided to the court, victims of child pornography serve life sentences. Long after the rape and direct sexual exploitation has ended, victims continue to suffer knowing that countless others derive sexual satisfaction by watching their abuse,” they said in a sentencing memorandum.
The court also received letters in support of Tocci, arguing for the judge’s leniency. The letters included notes from his parents, grandfather, landlady, and aunt, expressing disappointment in his actions but suggesting his autism diagnosis and a past breakup could be partially to blame.
Tocci’s public defender did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Wednesday.
Tocci was previously arrested in 2023 for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol with Trump supporters during the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory back in 2021.
He faced charges of destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, as reported by local media at the time.
Trump, on his first day in office last year, signed an executive order that pardoned more than 1,500 of the rioters and commuted the sentences of some extremist group members, whom he referred to as “hostages.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) spoke out in support of Tocci’s prison sentence on the child sexual abuse images charge while shaming his earlier pardon by Trump.
“Predators protecting predators. This time in my own district,” he posted on social media. “I’m glad he’s facing justice after Trump let him back into our community where he was a danger to our children.”
Tocci is just the latest Capitol rioter pardoned by Trump to be sentenced for a crime committed after the 2021 violence.
Andrew Paul Johnson, a Florida man who participated in the attack, was sentenced last month to life in prison for molesting two children just before his 2024 sentence for his Capitol riot conviction.
The 45-year-old handyman told one of his victims that they would financially benefit from any compensation he received for being pardoned by Trump, according to a sheriff’s office report.
