Officials rescind Capitol assassination claim
PHOENIX — Federal prosecutors who initially said there was “strong evidence” the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week aimed to “capture and assassinate elected officials” backed away from the allegation after the head of the investigation cautioned Friday that the probe is still in its early stages and that there was no “direct evidence” of such intentions.
The accusation came in a court filing by prosecutors late Thursday in Phoenix in the case against Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man who took part in the insurrection while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns.
“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” a prosecutor wrote in a memo urging the judge to keep Chansley behind bars. But at a hearing for Chansley later in the day, another prosecutor, Todd Allison, struck the line from the memo.
Allison said the statement may end up being appropriate at Chansley’s trial but that prosecutors didn’t want to mislead the court and don’t have to rely on the stricken statement to argue that he should remain in jail. Ultimately, a judge Friday ordered Chansley to be jailed until his trial.
Earlier on Friday, Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, backed away from the assassination claims, saying authorities have “no direct evidence at this point of kill, capture teams.”
Sherwin said there appears to have been confusion among some prosecutors in part because of the complexity of the investigation and the number of people involved. Prosecutors raised a similar prospect Thursday in the case of a retired Air Force officer who they alleged carried plastic zip-tie handcuffs because he intended “to take hostages.”
The investigation involves multiple cities and jurisdictions, in part because so many of the rioters simply went home; only 13 were arrested in the moments after the Capitol was cleared.
The FBI has been investigating whether any rioters had plotted to kidnap members of Congress and hold them hostage, focusing particularly on the men seen carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs and pepper spray.
Although the assassination claim from the court filing was stricken by prosecutors, they didn’t back away from the statement that Chansley, when climbing up to the dais where Vice President Mike Pence had been presiding moments earlier, wrote a note to Pence that said: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”
Chansley’s attorney, Gerald Williams, said his client “was merely there acting as a protester.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Fine, in ordering Chansley jailed until trial, concluded that he is at risk of fleeing and obstructing justice in his case and poses a danger to the community.