Tear gas is released right into a crowd of protesters, with one wielding a Confederate battle flag that reads “Come and Take It,” during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, on the U.S. Capitol Constructing in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
No less than 1,000 people to this point have been arrested on charges related ot the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, the Department of Justice said Monday.
About 518 people have pleaded guilty to federal crimes to this point, the DOJ said in an update marking 26 months because the riot.
Around one third of Capitol riot defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police in the course of the attack, the DOJ said. About 420 defendants have already been adjudicated and sentenced for his or her criminal activity. One other 53 people were found guilty at trials, DOJ said.
“The Department of Justice’s resolve to carry accountable those that committed crimes on January 6, 2021, has not, and won’t, wane,” the update said.
The department said the approximate financial losses “suffered in consequence of the siege on the Capitol” totaled $2.88 million as of Oct. 14.
Those losses reflects damage to the Capitol constructing and ground, in addition to costs borne by the Capitol Police. About 140 law enforcement officials were assaulted in the course of the riot.
The brand new tallies come because the DOJ is investigating former President Donald Trump for actions leading as much as and the day of the riot, when lots of of his supporters swarmed around after which breached the Capitol, sending members of Congress fleeing.
The attack interrupted a joint session of Congress that had been meeting that day to substantiate the Electoral College victory of President Joe Biden.
For weeks after losing the favored presidential vote, Trump falsely claimed that he actually won the race and that Biden was being awarded the Electoral College win in consequence of widespread ballot fraud in a handful of swing states.
The DOJ and other agencies found no such widespread fraud that swung the election to Biden.
On Dec. 18, 2020, shortly after meeting with a bunch of allies who discussed ideas to overturn his loss, which included potentially seizing voting machines rerunning the election,Trump tweeted that folks should travel to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6.
“Be there, will likely be wild,” Trump wrote.
On Jan. 6, Trump was the headline speaker at a rally outside the White House, where he urged a crowd to march to the Capitol and “fight” against confirmation of Biden’s victory.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” said then-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in June when she and other members of the select House committee that investigated the riot began publicly detailing their findings.Â
In December, the committee referred Trump for investigation and possible prosecution for his conduct, which included his urging his vp, Mike Pence, to reject the Electoral College ballots of various swing states that Biden won.
The committee said there was sufficient evidence to refer Trump for 4 crimes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, making knowingly and willfully materially false statements to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an riot.
Trump, who’s searching for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied any wrongdoing.
