The U.S. Department of Justice announced on August 6 that they had arrested nearly 1,490 people on charges related to January 6. This is a much higher rate of arrests in the first seven months of 2024 than in 2023 and 2022.
According to the DOJ’s 43-month Jan. 6 report, the FBI has arrested 1,488 people since Jan. 6, 2021. This includes the 223 people caught so far in 2024.
According to DOJ data, the number of arrests so far this year is 43% higher than the first seven months of 2023 and 65% higher than the first seven months of 2022.
Overall, entering and staying in a limited government building or grounds is the most common charge. 1,417 people faced this charge, with 171 of them accused of using a deadly or dangerous tool. People have used everything from pepper spray and motorbike gloves to knives, bats, and flagpoles as weapons.
According to the report, nearly 550 individuals faced charges for assaulting, resisting, or obstructing specific police officers or workers. 163 individuals faced charges for using a dangerous weapon or causing major bodily harm.
There were 944 sentences, and 60% of them were prison terms.
Six hundred and sixty-seven (67.7%) of the 894 people who pleaded guilty did so for crimes.
About 146 of the people who pleaded guilty to crimes did so for attacking police officers, and 76 did so for obstructing, impeding, or interfering with police during a civil disorder. 180 of these 222 suspects received jail terms ranging up to 151 months.
The study said that out of the 944 people whose cases were decided and who were given terms, 60% were sent to jail, 18% were sent home to be watched, and 3.3% got a mix of the two.
Fought trials led to the convictions of 186 people, including 3 in the District of Columbia Superior Court. An agreed-upon set of facts led to the convictions of 37 more suspects, the report said.
For the second month in a row, the DOJ report didn’t go into excellent detail about how it used a new white-collar crime law to charge protesters with a 20-year felony. Congress’s mostly ceremonial meeting to count Electoral College votes from the 2020 presidential election was the “official procedure” that led to the charge.
The U.S. Supreme Court set strict rules for the use of the Enron-era law in the important case of Fischer v. United States on June 28. The court stated that prosecutors could only use the law if a defendant “impaired the integrity of records, documents, objects, or other things used in an official proceeding, or attempted to do so.”
There are 355 people charged with breaking 18 U.S. Code §1512(c)(2), but the DOJ is only talking about the 259 people who were still charged when the Supreme Court made its decision.
133 of the 259 suspects have received sentences, according to the DOJ. The court found 57% of those sentenced guilty of 1512(c)(2) and other crimes.
The DOJ said that 30% of people who were found guilty of §1512(c)(2) and no other crimes were put on probation, finished their terms, or were freed until the Fischer case was over.
Since the Supreme Court’s Fischer decision, a lot of people have asked federal courts in the District of Columbia to overturn convictions, shorten sentences, and free prisoners from jail or probation.
