By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
Fourteen months after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, the U.S. government reported the arrests of more than 775 individuals from nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
A fact sheet released on Thursday, March 10, by the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that at least 245 defendants had faced charges ranging from assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.
That includes more than 80 individuals charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on January 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Officials said they’d arrested about ten individuals for a series of charges that relate to assaulting a member of the media or destroying their equipment during the insurrection, where participants sort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. “Sunday, March 6, 2022, marked 14 months since the attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress in the process of affirming the presidential election results,” DOJ officials wrote in a news release. “The government continues to investigate losses that resulted from the breach of the Capitol, including damage to the Capitol building and grounds, both inside and outside the building.”
DOJ officials cited a May 2021 estimate by the Architect of the Capitol, which noted that the attack caused approximately $1.5 million worth of damage to the U.S. Capitol building.
A Congressional committee investigating the attack noted in a court filing that it also had evidence that former President Donald Trump and his supporters engaged in a “criminal conspiracy.” Committee members concluded that Trump attempted to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Another report revealed that the committee has also focused on whether the Trump campaign, its affiliated super PACs, the RNC, and protest rally organizers knowingly used false claims to deceive donors.
The Washington Post reported that “committee investigators have interviewed low-level Trump campaign aides who wrote fundraising pitches, grilled Trump advisers about who may have personally profited from the post-election cash haul and even dialed up the owners of a portable-toilet company to find out who paid them to put toilets on the Ellipse the day of the insurrection.”
Meanwhile, DOJ officials noted that they’d charged at least 685 people with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds. Additionally, more than 80 individuals have faced charges of entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon and hit at least 50 with the destruction of government property offenses.
Also, more than 30 defendants have been charged with theft of government property, and 280 face charges of corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding or attempting to do so.
The DOJ said approximately 40 defendants had been charged with conspiracy, either for conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, conspiracy to injure an officer or some combination of the three. At least 224 individuals have pleaded guilty to various federal charges, from misdemeanors to felony obstruction, many of whom will face incarceration at sentencing. Approximately 195 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.
Twenty-nine have pleaded guilty to felonies, and seven of those have pleaded to charges related to assaults on law enforcement.
Six have now been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 41 to 63 months, while more than 110 have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their criminal activity on January 6.
More than 50 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration. More than 35 more have been sentenced to a period of home detention. The DOJ said citizens from around the country have provided “invaluable assistance” in identifying individuals connected to the deadly attack.
Further, the FBI said it continues to seek the public’s help in identifying more than 350 individuals believed to have committed violent acts on the Capitol grounds, including over 250 who assaulted police officers.
“Under the continued leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the attack continue to move forward at an unprecedented speed and scale,” DOJ officials stated.
“The Department of Justice’s resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on January 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane.”
