The first wave of arrests The deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol Focus on easy goals. On January 6, dozens of pro-Trump thugs publicly bragged about their actions on social media and were captured by shocking footage broadcast live by the national news media.
But six months after the riots, the Justice Department is still hunting down dozens of thugs, even though the first of more than 500 people who have already been arrested has pleaded guilty. This struggle reflects the large-scale investigation and the hard work that the authorities still need to do in the face of increasing efforts by some Republican legislators to rewrite what happened that day.
Those who have not yet been caught: the person who planted two tube bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the melee, and the reporter accused of assaulting law enforcement officials or threats of violence. The FBI website sought information about participants in the violence at the Capitol, which included more than 900 photos of approximately 300 people with the label “unidentified.”
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Part of the problem is that the authorities arrested very few people on January 6. Instead, they focused on cleaning up the buildings of members of the mass rioters who attacked the police, destroyed historical property, and combed the halls for the legislators they threatened to kill. Federal investigators were forced to go back to hunt down the participants.
Since then, the FBI has received numerous tips and digital media from the public. But prompting is only the first step in a laborious process—including search warrants and interviews—to confirm people’s identities and their presence in the rebellion in order to bring the case to court. The authorities have no record of many assailants because this is the first time they have broken the law.
“Most of these people have never appeared on radar screens before,” said Frank Montoya, a retired FBI agent who leads the bureau’s field offices in Seattle and Honolulu. “You watch a movie and a name appears on the radar screen. They know all the aliases and the place where he last had dinner. Just click a button. Unfortunately, this is not the case.”
The FBI was assisted by “sedition hunters” who joined forces to identify some of the most elusive suspects and used crowdsourcing to study a large number of videos and photos from the attack.
Forrest Rogers is a business consultant who helped form a sedition hunter organization called “Deep State Dogs”. He said that the organization has reported to the FBI the possible identities of about 100 suspects based on collected evidence.
Sometimes, a distinctive outfit can help the team to match. Rogers said that in one case, a woman carrying a unique iPhone case was photographed using the same case during an earlier protest on January 6.
“This is seeking justice,” he said. “This is unprecedented in the history of our country.” Rogers asked: “Where else are there thousands of people who commit crimes and then immediately spread across the United States?”
John Scott-Railton is a senior researcher at the Citizens Laboratory at the University of Toronto. He has been working with reporters and others to use digital clues to identify suspects. He said that although he knows a lot about the “little fish” who committed the crime that day, he needs a deeper understanding of the behavior of organized group leaders.
“We all need to be in one place where we can have a conversation about what January 6th is, not just a group of people driven by a series of ideologies appearing in the Capitol,” he said.
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The wanted people include many people accused of violently assaulting police officers. A video released by the FBI shows an unidentified man attacking a police officer with a truncheon. In another photo, a man tore off the gas mask of a police officer who screamed in pain when he was pressed by an angry mob at the door.
In some cases, social media platforms have handed over guilty posts that the defendants tried to delete because their celebration of the siege gave way to fear of arrest. Usually, the attacker’s own family, friends or acquaintances will report to the authorities.
In one case, the FBI used facial matching software to find a suspect in his girlfriend’s Instagram account. The agent then went undercover, secretly recorded the man’s work situation, and asked him to admit that he was in the crowd, which he called “interesting”.
“The more of these people you identify—perhaps through search warrants and social media communications—you will be able to identify other people,” said Tom O’Connor, who worked as an agent before leaving the bureau in 2019. The identity focuses on counter-terrorism work. “Those who are arrested will have the opportunity to cooperate and identify other relevant personnel.”
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that led to the arrest of the person responsible for planting the tube bomb in Washington on January 5. The video showed that a person wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, mask and gloves appeared to be planting a bomb. The explosives under the bench outside the Democratic National Committee and people walking in an alley near the Republican National Committee before the bomb was placed there. It is not clear whether these bombs are related to the planned rebellion.
Ministry of Justice officials stated that arresting all those involved in the rebellion remains a top priority. Authorities recently arrested the 100th person accused of assaulting law enforcement and the first person accused of assaulting a press person. The prosecutor said a man assaulted a photographer.
“They will find them,” said Robert Anderson, Jr., the former executive assistant director of the Criminal, Network, Response and Services Division of the FBI. “I don’t care how long it takes. If they are looking for them, they will find them.”
On January 6, more than a dozen defendants pleaded guilty, including two members of the Oath Guardian Militia, who admitted to colluding with other extremists to prevent President Joe Biden from winning proof.
Most of the other plea agreements reached so far are for cases where the defendant has been charged with a misdemeanor only for entering the Capitol illegally. The only defendant sentenced was an Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was not in jail.
Richer reported from Boston, and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland.
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
