Key takeaways from the stunning Justice Department press conference on the US Capitol violation

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Acting US attorney in Washington, DC, Michael Sherwin, told reporters the agency was at the start of a “long-term investigation” that “will not be resolved overnight.”

Officials have opened more than 170 thematic files – that is, individuals identified as people who have potentially committed crimes – on rioters on Capitol Hill.

Sherwin said this included individuals who have potentially committed crimes inside or outside the Capitol grounds. He added that he expected that the number of thematic files opened “will reach hundreds in the coming weeks”.

DOJ indicted ‘over 70 cases’

Of the 170 subject files that have been opened so far, Sherwin said the Department of Justice has charged more than 70 cases. This number, too, according to Sherwin, is expected to “grow into the hundreds” as the investigation unfolds.

Agency examines ‘charges of sedition and conspiracy’

As for the types of cases the Department of Justice charges, Sherwin said, the “range of cases” and misconduct they review “is truly mind-boggling.”

This includes “significant felony cases related to sedition and conspiracy,” he said. These charges would carry prison terms of up to 20 years.

Watching these accusations is a “strike force” in the DC US attorney’s office, Sherwin added.

“Their only marching order,” he said, is to mount charges of sedition and conspiracy related to “the most heinous acts that have happened in the Capitol, and these are important charges that have crimes with prison terms of up to 20 years. “

There was an ‘open-handed fight’ with the police

Sherwin said Tuesday that the Justice Department had placed emphasis on locating rioters who engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” with police during the breach.

A clearer picture of what happened inside the Capitol, Sherwin said, “is going to go into laser focus, I think, over the next few weeks and days, and I think people are going to be shocked. by some of the blatant contacts that have occurred within the Capitol. ”

Home made bombs left outside party headquarters were real

FBI Deputy Director Steven D’Antuono, who spoke alongside Sherwin at Tuesday’s press conference, said the FBI was seeking information on one or more people who helped plant homemade bombs outside the Republican and Democratic headquarters last week.

D’Antuono said the bombs were real – and had timers.

“We don’t know exactly why they didn’t leave,” he added.

FBI plans to put some rioters on ‘no-fly list’

D’Antuono also said the agency was considering preventing those who attacked the Capitol last week from boarding the planes by adding them to the federal no-fly list.

Asked by CNN’s Evan Pérez about the step, D’Antuono said, “Regarding the no-fly list, we are looking at all the tools and techniques that we can possibly use within the FBI and that is something that we are actively looking for. “

A look at the attacks on the press

Investigators are also looking at rioters’ attacks on reporters, Sherwin said.

“Some people don’t know that some of these rioters specifically targeted members of the media and assaulted them,” he said. We have therefore appointed specific prosecutors from our office to also focus on these cases. And I name all these different strike forces just to point out whoever the victim is, whoever the perpetrator, we all treat these cases the same. “

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