More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
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Charged
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Pleaded or found guilty
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Sentenced
As of July 18, 842 suspects have been federally charged in the Justice Department’s probe of the Capitol insurrection.
Most of those cases are ongoing.
116 defendants await sentencing after they either pleaded guilty or were convicted.
About 1 in 4, or 218 defendants, have been sentenced so far.
About half of the defendants have been charged with at least one felony.
At least 185 people have been charged with assault on law enforcement, among the most serious charges from investigators.
37 defendants have been charged with conspiracy or seditious conspiracy.
A handful of cases ended in other ways, including three where defendants died without facing trial. Charges were dropped against one man who further review showed did not enter the Capitol.
Only one defendant has been acquitted of all charges since the Justice Department started prosecuting the mob that stormed the Capitol building. A federal judge found a former Energy Department contract engineer not guilty of trespassing and disorderly conduct in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying the defendant plausibly argued that police officers allowed him into the building.
The Washington Post analyzed court filings, case documents and other public information about those charged and sentenced as of July 18. The most common felony charges suspects face fall into three categories: interfering with police, obstruction of an official proceeding and trespassing. Defendants in the more than 500 ongoing cases together face almost a thousand felony counts.
As of mid-July, more than 200 people who participated in the riot at the Capitol have been sentenced, according to the analysis. Twenty-four defendants have been sentenced with felonies and 194 with misdemeanors alone. All of the defendants sentenced with felonies face incarceration; on average, each defendant was sentenced to about two years of prison time.
Robert S. Palmer and Mark K. Ponder have been sentenced to the longest prison terms so far: Five years and three months each.
Palmer, a man from Florida who joined the front of the mob and hurled a fire extinguisher, plank and pole at police, was handed the 63-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in December. Ponder, who assaulted three police officers and shattered a riot shield with a pole, received a matching sentence from Chutkan this week.
[Citing terrorism, U.S. seeks 15-year prison sentence in Jan. 6 case]
Last week, the House committee investigating the efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results held its eighth public hearing featuring live testimony showing portions of outtakes from remarks Trump delivered Jan. 7, 2021, when aides pressed him to repudiate the riot. The Justice Department has also launched several criminal probes related to the Capitol attack that has moved closer in recent weeks to Trump’s inner circle.
[Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe]
The group of defendants could grow in the coming months: In early July, the FBI was still requesting the public’s assistance in identifying more than 350 individuals believed to have committed violent acts at the Capitol.