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The first waves of arrests in the murderous siege of the US Capitol focused on easy targets. Dozens of pro-Trump mob members openly brag about their actions on January 6 on social media and were captured in shocking images broadcast live by national media.
But six months after the uprising, the justice ministry is still looking for dozens of rioters, even though the first of more than 500 people already arrested has pleaded guilty. The fight reflects the massive scale of the investigation and the grueling work that still awaits authorities in the face of growing efforts by some Republican lawmakers to rewrite what happened that day.
Among those who have not yet been arrested: the one who planted two homemade bombs in front of the offices of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the day before the melee, as well as many people accused of assaulting law enforcement officers or violence and threats against journalists. The FBI’s website for information on those involved in the violence on Capitol Hill includes more than 900 photos of about 300 people labeled “unidentified.”
Part of the problem is that authorities made very few arrests on January 6. Instead, they focused on cleaning the building from members of the massive mob that attacked the police., damaged historic assets and raked the halls for lawmakers they threatened to kill. Federal investigators are forced to go back and hunt down the participants.
The FBI has since received countless tips and digital media items from the public. But advice is only the first step in a careful process – involving things like search warrants and interviews – to confirm the identity of people and their presence in the insurgency in order to bring a case to the courts. law courts. And authorities have no record of most of the attackers, as it was their first run-in with the law.
“Most of these people have never been on the radar screen before,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI special agent who headed the office’s field offices in Seattle and Honolulu. “You watch the movies and a name pops up on the radar screen and they know all the aliases and the last place he had dinner, all with a click of a button. Unfortunately, it is not like that in reality.
The FBI has been aided by ‘sedition hunters’ or armchair detectives who have teamed up to identify some of the most elusive suspects, using crowdsourcing to dig into the vast treasure trove of videos and photos of the assault .
Forrest Rogers, a business consultant who helped form a group of sedition hunters called “Deep State Dogs,” said the group reported the possible identities of around 100 suspects to the FBI based on evidence it had collected.
Sometimes distinctive clothing helps the group make a match. In one case, a woman wearing a unique iPhone case on Jan.6 was photographed with the same case at an earlier protest, Rogers said.
“It’s asking for justice,” he said. “This is something that is unprecedented in the history of our country.” Rogers asked, “Where else have you had several thousand people who committed a crime and then immediately dispersed to the United States?”
John Scott-Railton is a principal investigator at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto who worked with journalists and others to identify suspects using digital clues. He said that although much is known about the “little fish” who committed crimes that day, a deeper understanding is needed of the actions of organized group leaders.
“We all need to be in a place where we can have conversations about what January 6 was like that goes beyond a group of individuals motivated by a set of ideologies who presented themselves on Capitol Hill,” he said. he declared.
Those wanted include many accused of violent attacks on officers. A video released by the FBI shows an unidentified man attacking officers with a baton. In another, a man is seen ripping off the gas mask of an officer who cried out in pain as he was crushed against a door by the angry crowd.
In some cases, social media platforms have returned incriminating posts that defendants have attempted to remove after their merry siege celebrations gave way to fears of arrest. Often, the perpetrators’ own family, friends or acquaintances informed the authorities.
In one case, the FBI used facial comparison software to find a suspect on his girlfriend’s Instagram account. Officers then infiltrated, secretly recorded the man at work and had him admit on tape that he was in the crowd, which he described as “funny.”
“The more people you identify – potentially through search warrants and social media communications – you will be able to identify more,” said Tom O’Connor, who has focused on the fight against terrorism. as a special agent before leaving office in 2019. “Those people who have been arrested will then have the opportunity to cooperate and identify other people involved. ”
FBI has offered a reward of up to $ 100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the bomb planting in Washington on January 5. Footage shows a person in a gray hoodie, mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the Democratic National Committee and the person walking down an alley near the National Committee Republican before a bomb was placed there. It is still unclear whether the bombs were linked to insurgency planning.
Justice ministry officials say the arrest of everyone involved in the insurgency remains a top priority. Authorities recently arrested the 100th person accused of assaulting law enforcement as well as the first person accused of assaulting a member of the press – a man, according to prosecutors, attacked a cameraman.
“They will find them,” said Robert Anderson Jr., former executive assistant director of the FBI’s Crime, Cyber Security, Response and Services Branch. “I don’t care how long it takes. If they are looking for them, they will find them.
More than a dozen January 6 defendants have pleaded guilty, including two members of the Oath Keepers militia who admitted to plotting with other extremists to block President Joe Biden’s certification of victory.
Most of the other plea deals reached so far relate to cases where the defendants have only been charged with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. The only accused who has been convicted is a woman from Indiana who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was spared any time behind bars.
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Richer reported from Boston and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland.
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