A U.S. Appeals court on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump's pardon for January 6 defendants only applied to crimes directly related to the riot, not charges discovered during an FBI investigation like in one defendant's case.

The ruling is related to Kentucky resident Dan Wilson’s bid to avoid going back to prison this week to serve unrelated gun crimes, even though the guns were discovered during the FBI's investigation into his case. 

Wilson was convicted of possessing an unregistered firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was initially released when Trump signed the massive pardon, but the Justice Department said that was an error because the gun charges were unrelated. However, the DOJ has since reversed that position. 

In a 2-1 split, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the "plain terms" of the pardon did not apply to Wilson's crimes outside of January 6, 2021.

"[The pardon's] language plainly applies to related offenses -- not, as here, to an offense that is only connected to January 6 by the happenstance that it was uncovered during investigation of the unrelated January 6 offenses,” the majority wrote.

The two judges with a more narrow scope of the pardon were appointed by Trump and former President Barack Obama.

The third judge, another Trump appointee, questioned whether judges were allowed to interpret presidential pardons.

Wilson's attorney George Pallas told Politico that his client is slated to return to prison on Wednesday, but that he intends to appeal to the Supreme Court, or ask Trump to issue another pardon that dismisses Wilson's remaining charges.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.