Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed to pursue ‘all’ Jan. 6 suspects, even if they didn’t enter the Capitol or weren’t present there that day.
The Biden administration has pledged to continue to pursue and convict all people who broke the law in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incident, including those who never entered the building or who weren’t even present at the U.S. Capitol that day.
Prosecutors have, to date, charged over 1,250 people with various crimes related to Jan. 6, ranging from being present on Capitol grounds without authorization, to assault of a police officer, to seditious conspiracy.
Former President Donald Trump has said on several occasions that he thinks Jan. 6 detainees are being mistreated by the Biden administration and has vowed to issue pardons for many of them.
President Trump rallied his base in Iowa on the eve of the Jan. 6 anniversary.
“The J6 hostages, I call them. Nobody has been treated ever in history so badly as those people,” President Trump said at a rally in Iowa on the eve of the Jan. 6 anniversary, where he pledged to pardon a “large portion” of imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants.
President Joe Biden, by contrast, last week celebrated the jailing of Jan. 6 defendants in a speech to mark the third anniversary of the Capitol breach.
“Collectively, to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison,” he said.
“And what has Trump done? Instead of calling them ‘criminals,’ he’s called these … insurrectionists ‘patriots.’ And he promised to pardon them if he returns to office,” he added.
‘All Jan. 6 Perpetrators’ To Be Targeted
Off the campaign trail, the country’s top prosecutor has made clear that the DOJ under President Biden has no intention of letting Jan. 6 participants off easy—including those who weren’t even there that day.
“We have initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a speech on Friday.
