Jake Lang beat Capitol police officers with a baseball bat on January 6. Trump pardoned him anyway. Since then, he’s racked up arrest after arrest: terroristic threats in Dallas, threatening a Capitol officer with public execution, and now, driving a vehicle onto a sidewalk toward a crowd outside Minneapolis City Hall. This is what a presidential pardon bought the public.
Far-right activist Jake Lang and members of his group were arrested for rioting Saturday after driving two vehicles onto a sidewalk toward a crowd gathered outside Minneapolis City Hall, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
Minneapolis City Hall
According to police, just before noon on August 22, Lang and his group arrived at Minneapolis City Hall in two vehicles. Both vehicles then drove onto the sidewalk outside City Hall, toward a group of people gathered there. Minneapolis police officers moved in to get the vehicles off the sidewalk. Police say both Lang’s group and counter-protesters deployed mace during the confrontation, though no Minneapolis police officers used mace themselves.
Officers eventually caught up with the vehicles at two separate locations, one near Washington Avenue and Interstate 35W, the other in Bloomington near Lindau Lane and IKEA Way. All occupants of the vehicles, including Lang, were arrested on probable cause of riot, and both vehicles were impounded. Four additional arrests were made at city hall itself, where police say an officer was assaulted and taken to the hospital before being released. Police haven’t said how many people were arrested in total, or whether Lang remains in custody.
History of Arrest
Lang, born Edward Jacob Lang, was one of the more than 1,500 January 6 defendants Trump pardoned on his first day back in office in January 2025. Before that pardon, Lang had spent roughly four years in pretrial detention on 11 federal counts connected to the Capitol riot, including allegations that he assaulted officers with a baseball bat and a riot shield during the battle at the Capitol’s lower west tunnel. A Trump-appointed judge had kept Lang detained specifically because of what the judge called the “very strong” evidence against him and his “overt expressions of willingness to use violence in the future.” He was never convicted. His trial never happened. The pardon simply erased the case.
Freedom didn’t slow him down. In March 2026, Lang was charged in D.C. Superior Court after telling Metropolitan Police Cmdr. Jason Bagshaw, the same officer who faced down the mob at the Capitol on January 6, that he should be “put down like a dead dog” and “hung” in front of the Capitol. Prosecutors say Lang told Bagshaw that “public execution is the only solution for animals like you,” and that he should be dragged “out by his ankles” and thrown “in the Potomac.”
Three months later, in June 2026, Lang was arrested in Dallas on a state charge of making terroristic threats, after he was photographed outside the Collin County courthouse repeatedly during the murder trial of teenager Karmelo Anthony. Anthony’s family told CBS News that Lang had allegedly threatened to shoot Anthony in the head if he wasn’t convicted. Anthony was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to 35 years. His father said the family continued receiving racially charged death threats even after the verdict.
A Pattern of Harassment
Outside the courtroom appearances, watchdog groups have tracked a broader pattern. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism documented at least 19 public acts of hate against Muslims, Jews, and LGBTQ+ people by Lang over the past year alone, including burning Qurans, harassing Muslims in public, displaying racist banners, and burning Pride flags, describing it as a “crusade” that’s taken him to Michigan, Texas, California, and now Minnesota.
Lang has also turned his post-pardon platform into a political one. According to Wikipedia’s sourced summary of his activities, he is currently a Republican candidate in the 2026 U.S. Senate special election in Florida, and he was issued a summons for failing to appear at a March 2026 hearing tied to the Bagshaw threat case.
Minneapolis police say more details will come from a press conference with Mayor Jacob Frey and department officials.