Capitol rioters aimed to ‘capture and assassinate’ officials, federal prosecutors allege
WASHINGTON — The proTrump extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week aimed to “capture and assassinate elected officials,” with one rioter leaving a note for Vice President Mike Pence warning “justice is coming,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing that provides the most detailed explanation yet for what the mob planned that day.
Though a top Justice Department official said Friday the investigation was still in its early stages and there was “no direct” evidence rioters had such objectives, the chilling details were laid out in court papers.
The documents seemed to confirm lawmakers’ fears that the situation was potentially more dire than it seemed on Jan. 6, when a mob forced its way into the Capitol during the official counting of electoral votes that cemented President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The rioters vandalized the building and ransacked offices after forcing senators and House members to evacuate and take shelter. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died.
Since the attack, the nation’s capital has been locked down and transformed into an armed encampment of police officers and National Guard troops protecting buildings and blocking roads to prepare for Biden’s inauguration next week.
Federal authorities are racing to capture those involved in the siege, and have expressed concerns that pro-trump extremists may turn to softer targets in an effort to disrupt the inauguration or to avenge the shooting death of a rioter during the Capitol attack.
“Since the January 6 insurrection, violent online rhetoric regarding the inauguration has increased,” federal prosecutors wrote in a late Thursday court filing, “with some calling for unspecified ‘justice’ for the fatal shooting by law enforcement of a participant who had illegally entered the Capitol Building.”
The details of the rioters’ plot and potential for future violence were disclosed Thursday night by federal prosecutors in Arizona as they sought to keep Jacob Chansley, 33, in custody. He is one of nearly 100 people already facing criminal charges in the attack. A top federal prosecutor in Washington said Friday that nearly 275 investigations had been opened.
Chansely was among the most noticeable rioters: He was photographed entering the Capitol and standing on the Senate dais with a 6-foot spear, wearing a horned coyote fur headdress.
He was arrested Saturday in his hometown of Phoenix and has been indicted on charges of impeding Congress, violent entry and disorderly conduct.
In seeking to have Chansley detained pending trial, federal prosecutors painted an ominous picture of the die-hard Trump supporter, calling him a leading figure of “an insurrection attempting to violently overthrow the United States government.”
They said Chansley left the threatening note about “justice” for Pence just minutes after the vice president had been hustled away. Agents said Chansley told them he believed the vice president was a child-trafficking traitor, and they determined he was a rabid promotor of the Qanon conspiracy theory, which claims “that Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles are running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump,” prosecutors wrote.
Chansley’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, told CNN late Thursday that Chansley “felt very, very, very solidly in sync with President Trump.”
“He felt like his voice was, for the first time, being heard,” Watkins said. “And what ended up happening over the course of the lead-up to the election, over the course of the period from the election to Jan. 6, it was a driving force by a man he hung his hat on, he hitched his wagon to, he loved: Trump. Every word, he listened to him.”
“He felt,” Watkins continued, “like he was answering the call of our president.”