Justice Dept arrests hit 1,000 in connection with Jan. 6, and new accusations surface in latest prosecutions

The Justice Department has reached a milestone in its prosecution of the U.S. Capitol assault, confirming it has arrested a minimum of 1,000 folks in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol, just about part of whom nonetheless face the possibility of trials or plea agreements.   

A new wave of circumstances, a lot of which contain higher-level fees of attacks in opposition to police, continues to increase a prosecution this is already the biggest in American historical past.  

Twenty-six months into the prison investigation, the most recent circumstances proceed to show new main points and proof about alleged criminality amid the riotous mob.  

Slightly greater than part of the lads and ladies charged with federal crimes in the Jan. 6 assault have entered in charge pleas in their circumstances.   But whilst circumstances shut, new defendants and fees proceed to surface, which might stretch the entire prosecution smartly into 2024, if now not past.

In its latest replace, the Justice Department stated the FBI is looking for to spot a minimum of 260 extra folks sought after in the assault.  

In a lot of its court docket filings, together with a sentencing memo issued Monday, the Justice Department characterizes the Jan. 6 investigation as sweeping and extraordinary, calling it “a violent attack that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than one hundred police officers, and resulted in more than 2.8 million dollars in losses.”

New main points printed by way of new circumstances and trials

The Justice Department introduced fees Monday in opposition to a couple of North Carolina males, who’re accused of rifling via desks in the U.S. Senate Chamber. The charging record alleges one defendant photographed a broadcast reproduction of a speech by way of Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, criticizing former President Donald Trump.  The speech used to be delivered in February 2020, forward of Romney’s in charge vote in opposition to Trump in the previous president’s first impeachment trial.  

According to the Justice Department’s court docket filings, Romney had written the title “Mike” atop the speech and signed his title. The title “Mike” used to be a connection with both his colleague Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, or Sen. Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, and shared in February 2020, consistent with a Romney spokesperson.    

In the February trial of Capitol rebellion defendant Noah Bacon, a U.S. Capitol Police sergeant printed that simplest 88 senators had been accounted for in the Senate Chamber when the mob attacked the Capitol and a lockdown used to be ordered. The sergeant, who used to be attesting as a prosecution’s witness, stated two officials had been despatched outdoor to do “reconnaissance” for an get away path, as they sought a method to evacuate safely from the risk.  

The latest wave of newly charged defendants come with a former New Jersey state trooper, the sister of a Chicago police officer and a Florida guy accused of dressed in a panda gown whilst amid the mob.

Trial luck

The Justice Department has secured a just about unblemished report in Capitol rebellion trials over the primary two years of prosecutions. Only one defendant, a New Mexico guy who asked a bench trial — with no jury and a verdict rendered by way of a pass judgement on — used to be absolutely acquitted.  The defendant, Matthew Martin, argued he used to be unaware he used to be in fact in a limited area on Jan. 6.

Every jury to listen to a U.S. Capitol rebellion case has returned a minimum of a partial conviction. The latest rounds of in charge verdicts have incorporated a number of for seditious conspiracy, in opposition to individuals of the far-right Oath Keepers crew.   Jurors additionally convicted the so-called QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley of Arizona, who stood in horns and fur at the Senate dais. Juries have additionally convicted former New York Police officer Thomas Webster and Richard Barnett of Arkansas, the person who sat with his toes on a table in the workplace of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.