Trump’s Return Complicates Jan. 6 Cases.
CNN —
President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been sworn in yet, but his looming return has already upended hundreds of pending prosecutions against his supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and has disrupted the ongoing effort to arrest more rioters.
The historic effort by Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents to investigate the deadly Trump-inspired storming of the Capitol has led to more than 1,570 arrests in nearly all 50 states, making it the largest criminal probe in American history. New arrests are slowly still trickling in, four years later, including recent cases against a member of the Proud Boys and a rioter who tried to stab police with a flagpole.
But the political reality has already tanked morale inside the Justice Department division that handles these cases — and is hampering efforts to secure guilty pleas in about 300 pending cases, as defendants balk at negotiations, according to a federal law enforcement official involved in the sprawling investigation
A looming makeover of the Justice Department and the vow to pardon most if not all January 6th participants awaits DC political circles in the new year. The President elect is unlikely to continue the investigation or search for participants in the riot that occurred and likely to wrap up any further investigations. The history of the event differs greatly based upon what side of the political spectrum you fall.
