The Department of Justice has brought new charges against several Jan. 6 defendants in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, even as the president-elect signals that his DOJ will take a sharp turn away from prosecutions related to the riot when he takes office in less than two months.
The DOJ has continued to project a business-as-usual approach to its yearslong Jan. 6 operation, charging and arresting people at its typical pace. But the newest cases may not get very far in the court process, as Trump has said the prosecutions are “political persecution” and indicated they will grind to a halt the moment he is in the White House.
Since Trump won, the DOJ and FBI have focused on pursuing those accused of felonies, and not merely misdemeanors, according to public activity and media reports.
Federal authorities, for example, arrested two men from Florida on Monday in connection with the riot. The pair were charged in a complaint with multiple felonies, including assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon. The weapon, according to the charging documents, was a large metal Trump sign that the two men and others allegedly used as a “battering ram” against police officers.
Authorities arrested another man, a 56-year-old from Virginia, last week and charged him with two felonies after he was seen on camera shoving a police officer and shouting expletives at the officer, according to charging documents.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which has been overseeing all of the DOJ’s Jan. 6 prosecutions, declined to comment on any changes to the department’s approach in light of Trump’s election. The FBI said in response to a request for comment that its “investigations into federal violations continue” and did not specify any shift in priorities.
An unnamed federal law enforcement official recently indicated to NBC News that prosecutors were, indeed, avoiding arresting people solely for misdemeanors because of Trump’s win. In internal guidance, prosecutors were reportedly told to “focus on the most egregious conduct and cases until the end of the administration.”
Prosecutors have charged more than 1,500 people in connection to the riot, but the FBI still has hundreds of suspects on its Jan. 6 wanted list.
The new cases that have been brought or unsealed following Trump’s win come as the DOJ also continues in court to object to a wave of requests from defendants seeking pauses on their court proceedings because they anticipate Trump will pardon them or drop their charges.
Trump has vowed to grant clemency to a “large portion” of those who have been found guilty of Jan. 6-related crimes. For those who have been charged but not yet made it to trial, his DOJ could use its prosecutorial discretion to ask the court to dismiss the charges.
Last week, federal authorities arrested a California man on felony charges, alleging he wrestled a bike rack away from a police officer and had several other physical interactions with officers as he entered the Capitol. Also last week, a judge unsealed a case that revealed authorities had charged a man named Jeffrey Snyder last month for allegedly wielding a taser in the riot crowd and emptying a can of bear spray on an officer.
Bill Shipley, a longtime attorney who has represented dozens of the defendants, said he felt the DOJ was displaying misplaced priorities by continuing to charge people and by continuing to push judges to keep current defendants on fast-moving court schedules.
“They’re denying reality,” Shipley told the Washington Examiner. “They’re basically saying, ‘Well, it’s our toy for another seven weeks, so we’re going to keep playing with it.’”
William Pope, a defendant charged with misdemeanors, was one of the few defendants who successfully convinced a judge to halt his court proceedings in anticipation of Trump dropping his case. Days after the election, Pope issued a vague warning on X regarding the DOJ’s persistence.
“If Merrick Garland’s DOJ continues pursuing retribution against J6ers all the way up until the inauguration, they know what they can expect in return immediately after the inauguration,” Pope wrote.
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Shipley said that in terms of those who are facing misdemeanors, the DOJ should not at this stage advance those cases at all because it was a waste of valuable legal resources.
“They’re tying up court resources for cases that are almost assuredly not going forward,” Shipley said. “And then the defendants have to retain counsel, and counsel has to get involved and put aside time and make appearances and arrangements and deal with the government and obtain discovery.”