The Trump administration hired a man convicted over his role in the January 6 insurrection to work in a key position at the Pentagon.

The Washington Post reported that Elias Irizarry was hired to work in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict unit. The office oversees the employment of special operations forces in counterterrorism, counterproliferation, special reconnaissance, and similar activities, as well as special access programs under U.S. Special Operations Command (SoCom).

The appointment is reportedly raising questions about why someone convicted for his role in the Capitol attack would be allowed to join such a team.

“In the case of rescue/extraction missions, it can place our special operators in some of the most complex and dangerous environments we ask of them,” one person told the Post. “To put someone so junior and new to DoD, and with such a checkered background, into such a sensitive portfolio raises serious questions for leadership.”

Irizarry, who was 19 in January 2021, had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds following the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and was sentenced to 14 days in jail. He had expressed regret over his participation.

“I am ashamed because I will always be a part of this disgrace,” Irizarry said during his sentencing hearing in 2023. “January 6th represented something truly horrible; it was the largest attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

Irizarry was a freshman cadet at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, at the time of the insurrection.  He was suspended but was readmitted after his legal case ended. He graduated in 2024.

Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez defended Irizarry’s hiring, calling him “a qualified, patriotic young professional” whom they are “proud to have as a political appointee.”

“Unlike Mr. Irizarry, the Washington Post does not care about national security, given its track record of low-tier reporters publishing and soliciting classified information that could hurt our nation on a daily basis,” Valdez added.