The investigation into the Capitol invasion, which occurred on January 6, 2021, is the largest criminal investigation in the 153-year history of the United States Department of Justice.
In search of clues about the participants and their motivations, federal agents have already seized hundreds of cell phones, interrogated thousands of witnesses, and followed up on tens of thousands of tips in an exhaustive process that has so far resulted in over 900 arrests nationwide.
But the investigation is still far from complete: dozens, if not hundreds, of people may still face charges, which are being distributed over many months to avoid overwhelming the courts.
The investigators of the action have made a significant effort to bring to justice extremist groups like the “Proud Boys” and the militia “Oath Keepers,” who played central roles in the attack on the Capitol and the threat to one of the pillars of American democracy: the lawful transfer of presidential power.
Moreover, the inquiry into what happened at the Capitol serves as a backdrop for an investigation examining the role of former President Trump in the episode and of his various advisors and lawyers in the attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.
The investigations in numbers
About 950 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol invasion. Of these, 18 were charged with seditious conspiracy; 284 with assault or resisting an officer; 295 with obstruction of an official proceeding before Congress; the other charges, for the most part, were for relatively minor offenses, such as trespassing or illegal presence in the Capitol.
The maximum sentence for these minor offenses is six months in jail, and many defendants received only a few weeks in prison or did not have to face any jail time.
On the other hand, assault cases have resulted in the harshest penalties so far. In September, Thomas Webster, a former New York City police officer convicted of attacking a Capitol officer with a flagpole, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the most severe sentence to date.
A month later, Albuquerque Cosper Head, a Tennessee resident, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to dragging Officer Michael Fanone into a pro-Trump crowd that brutally assaulted him and attacked him with a stun gun.
Source: The New York Times