Federal prosecutors are weighing charging as many as 200 more people for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — including 60 suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers during the riot that nearly derailed the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
The new figures, released by the Justice Department Monday, reveal for the first time how many cases prosecutors believe are pending as Trump prepares to take office and threatens to unravel the massive four-year probe. About 1,583 people have faced federal charges for their role in the attack — including more than 600 facing felony charges for assaulting or resisting police during the chaos.
Though the Justice Department has released monthly statistics on the Jan. 6 probe — the largest federal prosecution in its history, according to DOJ leaders, Monday’s figures are the first time prosecutors have estimated how many uncharged cases remain. It’s a signal flare to Trump, who has indicated he expects to pardon many people involved in the attack but has repeatedly mischaracterized the status of the cases.
About 180 Jan. 6 defendants have faced charges for carrying a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds, and another 153 have faced charges for destruction of government property.
Prosecutors also emphasized what they say is their restraint in deciding which defendants to charge. They’ve largely opted against charging people who trespassed on Capitol grounds but didn’t enter the building, and the Justice Department said that discretion has led them to decline about 400 cases presented for potential prosecution by the FBI.
“Because of this exercise of prosecutorial discretion, the typical charged January 6 rioter committed multiple federal crimes,” prosecutors indicated in the update.
The new figures also highlight how many pending cases Trump will inherit. Though about 1,100 defendants have been convicted and reached sentencing — including 700 who have completed jail sentences or received no incarceration at all — another 300 charged cases have not yet reached trial or a guilty plea, including about 180 facing felony charges.
Trump has rooted his pardon pledge in a claim about the status of defendants held in Washington, D.C.’s jail, which he’s argued is unsafe. But the Justice Department indicated that just 10 Jan. 6 defendants — including eight awaiting trial but detained because of other exacerbating factors —remain in the D.C. jail.
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