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2024-12-15 Government Corruption
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Nearly 4 Years Later, No Letup in Jan. 6 Prosecutions, Possible Pardons or Not
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[RealClearInvestigations] Even as President-elect Donald Trump promised on Sunday to act “very quickly” on pardons for many of the protesters involved in the events of January 6, the Biden administration’s Justice Department is continuing to arrest and try people for actions that occurred almost four years ago while opposing motions to delay trials because of the need for “the prompt and efficient administration of justice.”
If the defeat of Kamala Harris constituted at least a partial repudiation of the lawfare against Trump and his supporters, the message appears to be lost on top brass at the DOJ. Prosecutors are pushing ahead with what they consider the department’s crowning achievement: the so-called “Capitol Siege” investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
In what Attorney General Merrick Garland describes as the biggest criminal investigation in Department of Justice history, more than 1,560 people have been charged for federal crimes never before used against political protesters, including under a post-Enron obstruction statute overturned by the Supreme Court in June. At least 1,000 of these defendants have been convicted – either at trial or by accepting plea offers – with some 650 defendants ordered to serve time in a federal prison. Sentences range from a few days in jail to up to 22 years as the DOJ seeks “terror enhancements” to tack on additional time.
Activity in the J6 investigation accelerated the month before the election. At least 16 individuals were arrested; home security camera footage obtained by RCI shows the heavily-armed pre-dawn FBI raid of a subject in California on October 17.
Shortly after the election, DOJ officials instructed attorneys working on J6 cases to carry on regardless of the pending change in leadership. “[Federal] prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section received guidance this week about how to proceed in pending Jan. 6 cases … including a directive to oppose any Jan. 6 defendant’s requests for delays,” Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News reported on Nov. 9. “Prosecutors are instructed to argue that there is a societal interest in the quick administration of justice and these cases should be handled in the normal order.”
At the same time, the Biden Justice Department is continuing to apprehend protesters. On Dec. 4, for example, the DOJ announced the arrest of a 44-year-old Alabama man, Robert James Bonham, charging him with a range of crimes, including “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.”
If Trump shuts down the department’s “Capitol Siege” section, as he is expected to do, Bonham will never go to trial. But this does not appear to concern Matthew Graves, U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Appointed by President Biden in November 2021, Graves has presided over the sprawling J6 investigation and now continues to advance related cases.
His office has opposed the J6 defendants’ requests to halt proceedings until after Trump is sworn in next month. Judges began receiving a slew of defense motions starting the day after the election asking to postpone trials and hearings, but Graves said there is “public interest in the prompt and efficient administration of justice” as a reason to continue business as usual.
Federal judges in Washington agree with the DOJ’s approach. According to an analysis by RCI, 44 pardon-related motions including requests to delay trials and sentencings have been filed since November 6. Of those, judges, with the exception of Judge Rudolph Contreras, have denied each one. Several more are pending awaiting the court's decision.
| Details of the denials by each judge can be seen at the link: |
Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a motion to delay a J6 jury trial for Mitchell Bosch.
Three J6 jury trials are set to begin this week. For the trial of one of those defendants, a man charged with civil disorder and four misdemeanors, Judge Amy Berman Jackson recently entered an order allowing prosecutors to describe January 6 to jurors as an "attack on the Capitol," "attack on Congress," and a "riot.”
The day after the election, an attorney representing Christopher Carnell, who was convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors following a bench trial in February 2024, asked the judge in his case to delay a scheduled hearing based on the possibility of a pardon. But Beryl Howell, the former chief judge of the court, immediately rejected her request.
Her colleagues on the D.C. federal bench, citing either a public interest in continuing court proceedings or making separation of powers arguments, followed her lead with recent rulings:
Judge Reggie Walton
Judge Amit Mehta
Judge Paul Friedman
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
Chief Judge James Boasberg
Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, is the most outspoken judge when it comes to any downplaying of what happened on Jan. 6. In an April 2024 Wall Street Journal profile, the 80-year-old jurist was described as “a leading voice pushing back against attempts by Republican politicians to play down the Jan. 6 attack.”
And at least one D.C. judge is taking direct aim at Trump for even considering pardons. Trump-appointee Carl Nichols, who presided over Steve Bannon’s contempt case and sentenced the longtime Trump adviser to four months in a federal penitentiary, went so far as to say in a recent court hearing that it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” for the incoming president to issue “blanket pardons … or anything close.”
But it’s not just existing cases that are being fast-tracked before the transfer of power. Graves has announced the arrest of at least 10 Jan. 6 protesters since Election Day; last week, Graves charged at least three individuals for their participation in the Capitol protest.
There is no indication the DOJ will halt the pursuit of J6ers even as the pardon of Hunter Biden raises concerns over the practice of presidential pardons. Shortly after Joe Biden pardoned his son, Trump posted a message on Truth Social referring to the J6ers in what some consider a sign he is considering a similarly broad pardon. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump wrote.
In apparent response, the New York Times editorial board criticized the Hunter Biden pardon not on its merits but because it makes it easier for “ Trump [to] pardon the perpetrators of the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”
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Posted by Skidmark 2024-12-15 00:00||
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