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Significance of Charges Laid for January 6, 2021
Assault on U.S. Capitol in Washington DC

U.S. Justice Department Lays Charges Against More Than 760 People

During the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, police agencies arrested almost no one. In the year since, more than 760 have been arrested and charged. The Department of Justice (DoJ) is expecting that number to reach 1,000. Those charged are overwhelmingly men, with the largest numbers coming from Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas. The large majority are being charged with misdemeanors. About 640 people have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, a misdemeanor. Some of these and others, about 225 all told, have been charged with crimes of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, some felonies. So far, 75 are facing charges of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

According to the DoJ at least 167 people, or nearly 25 per cent of those charged, have pleaded guilty. Approximately 145 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and 20 have pleaded guilty to felonies. Only about 73 people have been sentenced so far after pleading guilty. Of those, 32, or 43 per cent, have received jail time, averaging about 45 months, for the more serious crimes. Around 18 people have been sentenced to a period of home detention.

Many of those charged are former or active police and military. Some state and local elected officials have also been charged. At least 62 people are self-described members of, or have ties to, the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, or Three Percenters militias. They include 29 Proud Boys, 23 Oath Keepers, and 10 Three Percenters. Eleven Oath Keepers, some charged previously, have now been charged with seditious conspiracy, a far more serious crime.

(TML Daily, posted February 4, 2022)