Jan. 6 probes: What’s next for Congress, criminal cases
This isn’t the end of the Capitol riot story.
The House committee investigating the deadly events of a fateful, chilly January day — now a year and a half in the past — has wrapped up its hot summer series of televised hearings, each featuring revelatory details about the day of violence itself or the weeks of efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.
But the Jan. 6 committee is preparing for more hearings in September, and investigations persist in multiple jurisdictions and venues. New details will be unearthed. Additional criminal cases against the rioters who stormed the Capitol are a safe bet. Other prosecutions — Georgia Republicans were recently warned they could face charges — could be on the horizon, too.
A look at what lies ahead for the Jutice Department:
In keeping with department protocol, federal prosecutors haven’t said anything publicly about scrutiny of Trump himself.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters Wednesday that “we do not do our investigations in public.”
But he left no doubt about the scope of the probe, calling it “the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”
He also said “no person is above the law” and has vowed to hold wrongdoers “at any level” accountable as signs point to an investigation that is intensifying rather than winding down.
Officials have so far arrested more than 855 people in connection with the riot, and the work to identify those who broke into the building continues. Yet the investigation goes beyond that, as prosecutors in recent weeks have made clear their interest in broader efforts by Trump allies to undo the election results.
Last month, the FBI opened a new front of investigative activity by seizing records from a group of Republicans who served as fake electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his allies pushed officials in those states to replace Biden’s duly selected electors with ones who supported him as they advanced claims that his victory had been stolen.
As for Trump, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, it remains unclear whether prosecutors might seek to bring criminal charges.
Legal experts have said damaging testimony from the hearings, including the assertion that he sought to join his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 or that he dismissed warnings that many had weapons, gives prosecutors territory to explore. Some have said his overall campaign to cast aside the election results, and his desire to interfere with the congressional certification of the count, could amount to a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States.
As Democrats pressure Garland to act, he and his team say their decisions are based on the facts, the evidence and the law. There are other considerations, though, that could conceivably come into play even if prosecutors assemble strong evidence.
Any prosecution of Trump is likely to further inflame tensions in an already deeply polarized country. And if the former president were to soon announce another run for office, a decision to charge him could inject the department into presidential politics.