WASHINGTON – The Justice Department plans to focus on arresting the remaining 72 Jan. 6 rioters, particularly those who committed serious crimes against law enforcement officers but have not yet been arrested. President-elect Donald Trump is days away from returning to the White House, a law enforcement agency told NBC News this week.
Trump is expected to end the years-long investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack, and he “completely” forgive some, if not allFrom the supporters who stormed the US Capitol that day, they were told “warriors,” “incredible patriots,” political prisoners and “pledges.” A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on which rioters Trump would consider pardoning, though the campaign previously said he would pardon the defendants on Jan. 6 when he returns to the White House. .”
In light of Trump’s stunning election victory, federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Division received instructions this week on how to proceed in cases scheduled for trial on Jan. 6, NBC News has learned, including a directive to oppose any Jan. 6 defendant’s delay requests. Prosecutors have been instructed that there is a public interest in the speedy administration of justice and that these cases should be dealt with in the normal manner.
As for the new arrests, a law enforcement official said prosecutors will “focus on the most egregious behavior and cases until the end of the administration.” Although the judge has no longer signed the cases, the official said further arrests of defendants who committed crimes on January 6 (such as those who entered the Capitol but did not attack law enforcement) are unlikely, but the felony cases will continue.
Online detectives who have helped the FBI arrest hundreds of Capitol rioters told NBC News that they have provided the bureau with evidence on 75 people currently on display. The FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage and was tagged as wanted for assault on a federal officer or assault on the media, both felonies.
Federal officials will have to pick up speed to cross the finish line before Trump heads through the Lower West Tunnel — where several officers have engaged law enforcement in a melee described by supporters as “medieval” — to take the oath. January 20, 2025.
“More than 1 “online” one a daymischief hunters“Those who devoted hours of their lives to finding the Trump supporters who brutally attacked law enforcement that day told NBC News. ‘Place your bets!’
“We haven’t spent the last four years tracking down these criminals so they don’t go after them because half the country is stupid,” said one online sleuth. “Our case is ongoing, as is the DOJ’s case.”
On Jan. 6, the existing cases against the defendants are expected to continue with additional court hearings, sentencing hearings and plea agreement hearings scheduled for next week.
The FBI has so far arrested more than 1,560 defendants on January 6. Prosecutors have secured more than 1,100 convictions, and more than 600 defendants have received sentences ranging from days to 22 years in federal prison.
A rioter who attacked law enforcement officers this week and smashed the windows of the House Speaker’s lobby before a fellow rioter was shot — and later became the target of a conspiracy theory that suggested he was a federal informant – was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
A former assistant attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Unit told NBC News this week that prosecutors are proud of what they’ve done, but nervous and discouraged about the future. According to a former assistant U.S. attorney, many prosecutors get involved in these cases out of a desire to uphold the rule of law and defend democracy, but the cases are mostly aimed at exonerating the victims, who are police officers.
“You spend time trying to understand the hell that police officers go through and watch body cameras where you’re standing in their shoes and you see people physically assaulting them, taking cheap shots at them, backstabbing them and using race. They’re being slandered, they’re standing there for hours and hours trying to protect the Capitol and the people in it, and the cases are about the victims,” he said. “So the idea that the people who committed these crimes against those victims, the people who assaulted those officers, will be pardoned, we just hope that people they think twice before doing it.”
A former assistant U.S. attorney said the prospect of presidential pardons for people who attack law enforcement is a “moral turpitude.”
“The idea of the strongest man in the country saying that the guy who sprays bear spray, hits him with a hockey stick, drags him down the stairs, or knocks him down is fine. The work of Michael Fanonehit them in the neck and caused them to have a heart attack or in case Daniel Hodgestrap them between the doors and continue to trap them between the doors while they’re screaming for Hodges’ life, that part of it, it’s pathetic,” he said.
Prosecutors take immense pride in the work they do and take solace in the idea that in courtrooms where facts, not political rhetoric, control the outcome of jury trials, American citizens faced with real evidence have done the right thing. the prosecutor said.
“The evidence is overwhelming and the testimony of the officers is overwhelming,” he said. “When people are faced with evidence, it points in the same direction time and time again.”
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino GonellAn immigrant from the Dominican Republic and a writing military veteran book He talks about his experience of coming to America, learning English, serving in the military, and then being repeatedly assaulted by fellow Americans in the Capitol on January 6, continuing to attend sentencing hearings for his attackers. Injuries from the attack forced him to do so retirement in 2022; He is in his mid-40s.
Gonell, who campaigns on behalf of Kamala Harris, said she won’t let the story of Jan. 6 die out, even after Trump takes office.
“Whether he pardons them or not, it doesn’t take away what they did and what I went through,” Gonell said. “They—they can’t erase that history.”
“If you take Trump out of the equation and take out who they’re supporting, are the people who voted for him going to be happy with what’s going on? Are they going to support me?” Gonell asked. “And the question is, does it cause moral injury?”
“When I felt like no one cared about what happened that day,” he continued.