WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to focus on arresting the remaining 72 on Jan. 6, including the “most serious” rioters, particularly those who committed felonies against law enforcement officers but have not yet been arrested. Days before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, a law enforcement official told NBC News this week.
President Trump is expected to end a years-long investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and said he would “absolutely” pardon some, if not all, of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day, calling them “warriors” . ,” “Incredible Patriots,” Political Prisoners and “Hostages.” A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on which rioters Trump would consider pardoning. .”
In light of Trump’s surprising election victory, federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Division received guidance this week on how to proceed with their pending cases on Jan. 6, NBC News reported. He said he had found out about it, including instructions to oppose it. Prosecutors were instructed to argue that there is a social benefit in the speedy execution of justice and that cases should be processed in the normal order.
“Prosecutors will focus on the most egregious acts and cases until the end of the regime,” a law enforcement official said of the new arrests. Unless a judge has already cleared the case, there likely won’t be any additional arrests for misdemeanor defendants, such as those who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 but did not assault law enforcement, but felonious assault cases will continue to move forward, officials said. said:
NBC told the News. assault on the press, both felonies;
Federal officials will have to pick up speed to get across the finish line before President Trump can take the oath of office through the lower western tunnel, where his supporters fought law enforcement in a battle with several officers described as “medieval.” January 20, 2025.
“It’s about one a day,” one of the online “chill hunters” who has dedicated his life to finding Trump supporters who brutally assaulted law enforcement officers that day told NBC News. “Place your bet!”
Another online sleuth said: “We haven’t been chasing these criminals for the last four years to make sure dozens of them don’t get prosecuted because half the country is being stupid.” “Like DOJ, our work continues.”
The existing cases against the Jan. 6 defendants are expected to continue with additional trials, sentencing hearings and plea agreement hearings scheduled for next week.
As of January 6, the FBI has arrested more than 1,560 defendants. Prosecutors have secured more than 1,100 convictions, and more than 600 defendants have received sentences ranging from prison to 22 years in federal prison.
This week, a rioter who assaulted a law enforcement officer and smashed a window in the House speaker’s lobby moments before a fellow rioter was shot was targeted by a conspiracy theory that he was a federal informant and sentenced to eight years in prison. Federal prison.
A former assistant U.S. attorney with the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Division told NBC News this week that prosecutors are proud of the work they have done but understandably nervous and demoralized about the future. Many prosecutors said they got involved in the case out of a desire to uphold the rule of law and defend democracy, but the case became about defending the victims, who were primarily police officers.
“I spend a lot of time trying to understand what police go through, and I look at old body cameras and I see people physically assaulting police officers, shooting them cheaply, hitting them in the back, using racist language. They’re standing there and watching the National Assembly. “In an attempt to protect the Capitol and the people in it, we spent hours slandering them, and then the incident became about the victims,” he said. “So the idea that the people who committed crimes against those victims, the people who assaulted those police officers, are going to be pardoned, I hope people think twice before they do that.”
The prospect of a presidential pardon for those who attack law enforcement is “quite demoralizing,” a former assistant U.S. attorney said.
“The idea that the most powerful person in the country is saying it’s okay, the guy who sprayed the guy with bear spray, hit him with a hockey stick, dragged him down the stairs, or in the case of Michael Panone, said it’s okay, stabbed him in the neck with a Taser and gave him a heart attack. “They either lift him up or, in the case of Daniel Hodges, they lock him between the doors and keep pushing him through the doors while he screams for help. It’s so miserable.”
Prosecutors are very proud of the job they did, and take comfort in the idea that American citizens did the right thing by ignoring real evidence inside a courtroom where facts, not political rhetoric, control the outcome of a jury trial. The prosecution said.
“The evidence is overwhelming and the testimony of the officers is overwhelming,” he said. “Time and time again, when people are faced with evidence, it points in the same direction.”
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, a Dominican Republican immigrant and veteran, wrote a book about his experience of being repeatedly assaulted by fellow Americans at the Capitol on January 6 after coming to the United States to learn English and serve in the military. Sentencing hearing for the criminals who assaulted him. Injuries from the attack forced him to retire in 2022. He is in his mid 40s.
Gornell, who campaigned on behalf of Kamala Harris, said she will not let the story of Jan. 6 fade away even after Trump takes office.
“Whether he forgives them or not, that doesn’t take away from what they did and what I went through,” Gornell said. “They can’t erase that history.”
“If you take Trump’s name out of the equation and take out who they support, will the people who voted for him be okay with what happened? Will they support me?” Cornel asked. “And that’s the problem: it causes moral damage.”
“It makes me feel bad when no one seems to care what happened that day,” he continued.
