Legal fallout lingers four years after Jan. 6 attack

WASHINGTON — The legal fallout from the attack on the Capitol is unsettled four years after a mob of pro-Trump rioters assaulted law enforcement officers, destroyed property and stormed the building as they temporarily stopped the transition of power following Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win.

Congress proceeded with a peaceful transfer of power Monday, as clashes remain in ongoing civil and criminal cases tied to the attack and President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon Jan. 6, 2021, defendants once he takes office.

According to the Justice Department, more than 1,500 people have faced charges for their roles in the attack on the Capitol, including the 18 charged with seditious conspiracy and more than 100 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or seriously injuring a police officer.

More than 500 of the defendants also faced charges of assaulting or otherwise interfering with police efforts to secure the Capitol that day, according to the Justice Department’s latest update.

Trump and his allies have sought to downplay that attack in the court of public opinion, with some Republican efforts to cast the defendants as “political prisoners.”

The specifics of any Trump pardon plan are uncertain, and it’s unclear if Trump would draw a line between those charged with violent crimes and people convicted on lesser charges.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said people who attacked the Capitol “have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look.” In an interview with TIME magazine, Trump indicated he would look at them “case-by-case.”

“If they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished. And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control,” Trump said.

Trump’s allies have used the pardon promise as a rallying cry — including on Monday when backers gathered at a Washington hotel to call for him to make good on the pledge.

Among congressional Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has been one of the most outspoken supporters of pardons. On Sunday night Greene posted on X, formerly Twitter, a video of the attack altered to show Trump dancing inside the Capitol while rioters stormed the building.

“President Trump will be giving clemency, pardons and commutations, to J6’ers!!” Greene said.

In a floor speech Monday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Trump’s plans to pardon those who attacked the Capitol complex and tried to halt the transfer of power.

“It would send a message to the country and to the world that those who use force to get their way will not be punished. It is wrong. It is reckless. And it would be an insult to the memories of those who died in connection to that day,” Schumer said.

On Monday, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called the Jan. 6, 2021, events “an unprecedented attack on a cornerstone of our system of government.” And he said he is proud and grateful for the Justice Department employees who “sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity.”

“Over the past four years, our prosecutors, FBI agents, investigators, and analysts have conducted one of the most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in the Justice Department’s history,” Garland said.

“They have analyzed massive amounts of physical and digital data, identified and arrested hundreds of people who took part in unlawful conduct that day, and initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct,” the attorney general said.

Those prosecution efforts are expected to change direction in a second Trump administration, since he can appoint a new attorney general and other top Justice Department officials and prosecutors.

Efforts to hold Trump criminally accountable for his actions that allegedly contributed to the attack ended when he won reelection last year, and Special Counsel John L. “Jack” Smith has dismissed a criminal case in Washington ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration. The federal regulation used to appoint Smith also require he submit a report on his work before leaving office.

The Supreme Court had dealt the case a blow by deciding the presidency made Trump immune from most criminal charges. And the justices also hamstrung some Jan. 6 prosecutions last year when it ruled that a federal obstruction statute used in hundreds of cases was meant to cover only documents, not the conduct that interfered with the counting of Electoral College votes.

Those charges were used in more than 300 cases tied to the attack and has thrown a wrench in ongoing prosecutions. That includes months of delays in cases and dismissal of some charges, such as the obstruction charge against defendant Thomas Caldwell.

Democratic lawmakers, families of Capitol Police members and others have pursued civil suits against Trump which have still marched forward. Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held a discovery hearing Monday in a suit from former Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and others alleging damages from the attack.

Trump has continued to fight those cases, arguing that last year’s Supreme Court decision on criminal immunity should extend to civil immunity as well.

What’s ahead

In the meantime, Trump has called for the prosecution of now-Sen. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., and members of the disbanded House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

And last month, Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia released a report saying former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the select committee’s vice chair, likely broke “numerous federal laws.” The report stated those “violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Cheney slammed the report as “a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”

The Biden administration and Democrats have continued their push to have Trump and others face consequences for their actions that contributed to the attack.

Biden himself weighed in on the anniversary in a Washington Post op-ed Monday, calling for the country to resist efforts to minimize the first violent disruption to the transfer of power in the nation’s history.

“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand,” Biden wrote. “This is not what happened.”

Some Democrats on Monday shared solemn statements recalling the violence of the day, while many Republicans on social media celebrated Trump’s victory or posted about the legislative priorities in a second Trump term.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the select panel that investigated the attack, posted Monday on X commemorating the attack.

“Today, we remember the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, the lives lost, and the heroism of law enforcement who responded on that terrible day,” Thompson posted. “Today, we recommit to preserving our democracy for generations to come — and protect it from those who wish to subvert it.”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., posted praise on X for the Capitol Police officers who defended the Capitol four years ago.

“Their courage in the face of danger upheld the ideals of our nation and reminded us of the profound cost of defending freedom,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “We owe these brave men and women, as well as all our nation’s law enforcement officers, a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay, but we can honor their service and sacrifice by reaffirming our commitment to upholding and protecting the democracy they so valiantly defended.”