WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to focus on arresting the “worst” rioters on January 6, particularly those who committed felonious assaults on law enforcement officers but have not yet been arrested. The remaining 72 rioters President-elect Donald Trump is still days away from returning to the White House, a law enforcement official told NBC News this week.
Trump is expected to end the years-long investigation into the January 6, 2021, attacks, saying he will “Absolutely” forgive Some, if not allHis supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day labeled them “warrior,” “incredible patriot“political prisoners and”hostageA spokesman for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on which rioters Trump would consider pardoning, although the campaign has previously said he would pardon the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis when he returns to the White House. White House.
Federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section received guidance this week on how to handle pending cases on Jan. 6 in light of Trump’s stunning election victory, NBC News has learned, including opposing any Jan. 6 Instructions on the Defendant’s motion to delay. Prosecutors were instructed to argue that speedy justice was in the interest of society and that the cases should be dealt with in the normal order.
As for the new arrests, law enforcement officials said prosecutors will “focus on the most egregious conduct and cases until the administration is over.” The official said further arrests of misdemeanor defendants from Jan. 6, such as those who entered the Capitol but did not assault law enforcement officers, are unlikely unless a judge has cleared the cases, but felonious assault cases will continue.
Cyber sleuths who helped the FBI arrest hundreds of Capitol rioters told NBC News they have identified and submitted evidence to the FBI on 75 current Capitol rioters. FBI Capitol Violence webpage and is listed as a wanted fugitive for assault on a federal officer or assault on the media, both felonies.
Before Trump can be sworn in through the Lower West Tunnel, federal officials must move quickly to get these cases across the finish line. ” battle. January 20, 2025.
“Only 1 more “one of the online” per day”Sedition Chaser“He spent his life searching for the Trump supporters who brutally attacked law enforcement officers that day,” he told NBC News. “Place your bets!”
“We haven’t spent the last four years tracking these criminals so that dozens of people can avoid prosecution because half the country is idiots,” another cyber sleuth said. “Our work continues. So should the Department of Justice.”
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.
To date, the FBI has arrested more than 1,560 January 6 defendants. Prosecutors have convicted more than 1,100 people, and more than 600 defendants have received sentences ranging from a few days in jail to 22 years in federal prison.
This week, a fellow rioter was shot to death after a rioter attacked law enforcement officers and smashed the windows of the House Speaker’s Lobby — Then became the target of conspiracy theories suggesting he was a federal informant – Sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Justice Department’s Capitol siege section told NBC News this week that prosecutors are proud of the work they’ve done but are understandably nervous and demoralized about the future. The former assistant U.S. attorney said many prosecutors get involved in these cases because they want to uphold the rule of law and defend democracy, but the cases turn into defending victims, primarily police officers.
“You spend a lot of time understanding what hell police officers go through and putting yourself in their shoes and watching body-worn cameras, and you see people physically assaulting them, shooting them mean-spiritedly, hitting them from behind, and Using racial slurs against them “So the idea that people who commit these crimes against victims, who attack those police officers, are going to be pardoned, we really want people to think twice before doing that. “
The former assistant U.S. attorney said the prospect of a presidential pardon for assaults on law enforcement officers is “very frustrating.”
“The most powerful man in the country says it’s okay to spray bear spray on them, hit them with a hockey stick, drag them down the stairs, or Michael Fanon caseshock them in the neck, causing them to have a heart attack, or, in this case Daniel Hodgestrapping them between the doors and continuing to squeeze them between the doors while Hodges was screaming for his life, that’s part of it, it was so tragic,” he said.
Prosecutors are extremely proud of the work they do and take comfort in the fact that inside a courtroom—where facts, not political rhetoric, control the outcome of jury trials—American citizens faced with real evidence did the right thing thing, said the former prosecutor.
“The evidence is overwhelming and the testimony of the officers is overwhelming,” he said. “Time and time again, when people are faced with the evidence, it points in the same direction.”
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonellan immigrant and veteran from the Dominican Republic who wrote Book Recounting his experience coming to the United States, learning English, serving in the military and being repeatedly attacked by fellow Americans at the Capitol on January 6, he went on to participate in the sentencing hearing for his attacker. The injuries he sustained during the attack forced him to retire 2022; he’s in his 40s.
Gornell, who is campaigning on behalf of Kamala Harris, said he will not let the story of Jan. 6 disappear even after Trump takes office.
“Whether he pardons them or not, it doesn’t erase what they did and what I went through,” Gornell said. “They — they can’t erase that history.”
“If you take Trump’s name out of the equation, if you take out the people they support, will the people who voted for him accept what happened? Will they support me?” Gornell asked. “That’s the problem, it causes moral harm.”
“It’s not a good feeling,” he continued, “when you feel like no one cares about what happened that day.”
