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AHouse of Representatives prosecutors prepare to present their case against Donald Trump in his impeachment trial next week for inciting insurgency, supporters who responded to his Jan. 6 call to “fight like hell And continued to storm the Capitol find themselves in far greater legal peril.
The trial that begins Tuesday in the US Senate could lead to a new vote that would permanently bar Trump from office in the future. In contrast, the crowd of staunch Maga acolytes who burst into the U.S. Capitol following an incendiary rally titled by Trump could face jail for up to 20 years.
A month after the events that killed five people, including a US Capitol police officer, there is no indication that the Justice Department and the FBI are slacking off in their relentless pursuit of the insurgents. In the past week alone, suspected rioters have been arrested in Seattle, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Corinth, Texas; Garner, North Carolina; and Marion, Illinois.
The 56 FBI field offices are engaged in a broad investigation that ranks alongside the largest the office has ever conducted. As Michael Sherwin, the Washington DC acting US prosecutor leading the hunt, said: “The scope and breadth of this investigation is truly unprecedented, not only in FBI history but possibly in history. of DoJ. “
David Gomez, a former FBI national security official who has spent years fighting domestic terrorism, told The Guardian the office would classify and treat the research as a “major case.”
“This is probably one of the biggest investigations since September 11,” he said.
Already, the number of people arrested, either by the FBI, Capitol Police or local Washington DC agents, has reached 235, in more than 40 states. As the investigation widens and deepens, attention narrows to anyone considered to have acted as the coordinator of the action in an attempt to eliminate the ringleaders.
The FBI has set up a special strike force made up of experienced federal prosecutors who have been expressly instructed to prosecute aggressive sedition and conspiracy charges. So far, at least 26 people have been charged with conspiracy or assault.
“Sedition is the most serious crime that anyone can be charged with from January 6,” Gomez said. “He advocates the overthrow of the US government. It is not only a question of talking about the overthrow of democracy, but of having the means and the means to carry out these actions. “
As more is learned about those arrested, the strategy pursued by the FBI has also come to light. In several cases, people who participated in the storming of the Capitol have been arrested and charged with relatively minor offenses such as trespassing or theft of mail, simply to put them in the clutches of the prosecution.
Once in the system, more serious charges could then be added as intelligence came into play. This trend of escalating charges can be seen in the cases of Nicholas DeCarlo of Texas and Nicholas Ochs of Texas. ‘Hawaii.
Initially, the two men were charged with illegal entry into federal property. But new conspiracy charges were added this week in which they allegedly planned their trip across state lines, raised money to pay for it, and then made the trip to Washington DC in a premeditated attempt to obstruct the certification. of Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election.
If found guilty, DeCarlo and Ochs each face maximum sentences of 20 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000.
Prosecutors have made it clear that they are increasing the charges against certain individuals to deter further violence from Trump supporters and their far-right and white supremacist allies. “We are going to focus on the most important charges as a deterrent, because no matter if it was simply a trespassing on the Capitol or someone planted a homemade bomb, you will be charged and you will be found, ”Sherwin said.
The work of the FBI has been greatly aided by the plethora of intelligence circulating online – in many cases published by the suspects themselves. Take the hapless duo, DeCarlo and Ochs.
A photo of the couple, thumbs up in front of the US Capitol’s memorial door on which they had scrawled the words “MURDER THE MEDIA,” was easily found online. It was included in the indictment against them, and earned them special attention from the media strike force set up by federal prosecutors to investigate violent threats against members of the media.
This photo is one of at least 200,000 digital media tips that have spread to the FBI across the country, some from friends and even family members who have recognized individual rioters thanks to the profusion of video footage and still images plastered on the Internet and quickly informed about them.
As federal agents work their way through this mountain of digital information, they begin to get a sense of the kind of people who were present on the Hill that fateful day. As feared, the leadership role played by far-right and white supremacist groups has vanished.
At least 10 members of the extremist group the Proud Boys are among the growing number of those arrested, including Ochs, who, according to the Justice Department, claims to have founded a branch of the network in Honolulu. This week’s arrest in Washington state also involved a self-proclaimed leader of the Proud Boys – Ethan Nordean calls himself a Seattle chapter’s “sergeant-at-arms” and is accused in court documents of leading a group of police officers. rioters at the Capitol.
Faced with mounting evidence of the Proud Boys’ leadership role in the attack, the Canadian government this week decided to designate the group as a terrorist organization.
In the meantime, several members of the Oath Keepers, one of the largest far-right militia groups in the United States, have also been arrested.
Another puzzling element that emerges from the indictments is the number of current and former law enforcement officials and the military who serve on them. An analysis of the first 150 people arrested by CNN found that at least 21 had military experience, some ongoing.
Of these, eight were former Marines, pointing to the danger of an elite military formation designed to defend the country against international threats that would be turned on itself and used to attack the core of American democracy at home. him.
At least four law enforcement officers who were active in their posts at the time of the January 6 attack have been charged and have quit their jobs. They include a police officer from Houston, Texas, and a corrections officer from New Jersey.
One of the emerging truths that FBI detectives and prosecutors will have to contend with is that, despite the substantial presence of white supremacists and military personnel, most of those arrested are what one might describe as Ordinary Americans with no criminal history or history of extremist behavior.
Political scientists at the University of Chicago who studied the profiles of those arrested and published their findings in the Atlantic found that many were middle class and middle-aged – with an average age of 40. Almost 90% of them had no known links with activists. groups. Some 40% were business leaders or white collar jobs, and they came from relatively lucrative backgrounds as “CEOs, traders, doctors, lawyers, IT and accountants.”
The only common denominator that unites this great group is not an extremist group, website or media, but an individual – Donald Trump. This is why the link between the ongoing impeachment trial and the ongoing FBI roundup of suspects is so critical.
The link has been blatantly made in defense cases compiled by lawyers on behalf of several of the rioters arrested. Take Jacob Chansley of Arizona, the so-called “QAnon Shaman” who went shirtless and wore a fur headdress with horns as he fought all the way to the Senate dais in the assault on the Capitol.
His lawyers offered him as a witness during Trump’s trial. They say Chansley, who faces six charges including civil unrest, had been “horribly beaten” by Trump but now feels betrayed by him. They are also likely to use the argument that Chansley was misled by the then US president as a central argument in his own defense.
But Gomez doubts the ploy will prove effective.
“I don’t think it’s going to hold up in federal court,” Gomez said. “‘I robbed this bank only because someone told me to do it’ – I never heard this line work for a crime.”
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