In the past month, US authorities have filed several charges against at least 211 people, the majority of which are related to far-right groups, although there are also military veterans, for their involvement in the attack on the Capitol, in Washington, the latest 6 January.
The FBI has detailed that several dozen of these people have links with far-right militias, such as Oath Keepers, with three members already on trial, and especially with Proud Boys, with some of their leaders already charged.
They are Florida leader Joe Biggs, one of the first to break into the seat of the legislature, or the head of the New York delegation, Dominic Pezzola, who is known to have used a police shield to conduct a break the window and sneak through it.
Among those named are Proud Boys of Hawaii leader Nicholas Ochs, and Seattle’s Ethan Nordean, arrested and whose release was eventually annulled after a Washington court initially assured him of no danger to the community. formed. , there was no risk of flight.
Acting Federal Prosecutor for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, has advanced that they will file additional charges for conspiracy and incitement against those people who have disclosed themselves as leaders or “commanders” of the Capitol siege, NBC reports.
A month after the attack on the Capitol, the US authorities are unable to determine whether the attack was organized by several groups jointly or whether each of them acted on their own and fed back after the Capitol was attacked.
The charges against these hundreds of people are very different, because while some have been accused of attacking the authority – at least 140 police officers were attacked in the attack – others were only for minors, such as illegally entering a protected building.
However, no one has yet been charged with the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Likewise, the FBI has not yet found the person responsible for planting two homemade bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties in Washington.
The various prosecutors investigating what happened on January 6 have pointed out that while many of them were heavily armed, others were nothing more than spectators who took advantage of the situation to in some cases ‘give their son a memorable birthday’ ‘. , or “because I was trapped in the crowd and it was a once in a lifetime event.”
The FBI and other investigators have specified that the defendants are from up to 43 states. The profile of the attackers matches that of a man from Texas or New York with military training – at least about 20 of them are veterans of the US military – or they have knowledge of handling firearms.
The attack on the Capitol, which left five dead, occurred on the day the US Congress held a joint session to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump repeatedly rejected the election results and declared it “fraud”, albeit without providing evidence.
Shortly before the siege, Trump held a rally outside the White House encouraging his supporters to question the results of the presidential election. For this reason, Congress is holding a political trial against him on Tuesday, the second in just a year, for “inciting rebellion.”