WASHINGTON — The federal prosecutor overseeing more than 1,200 cases connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol urged Americans on Thursday to continue helping investigators identify suspects as the third anniversary approached.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves compared the cries of the crowd on Jan. 6 to a “lynch mob” and asked for the public’s help in identifying roughly 80 individuals believed to have assaulted police during the riot. Graves said officers endured hours of fighting akin to a “medieval battle.”
“The siege of the Capitol is likely the largest single day of mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history,” Graves said.
More than 440 people have now been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police – including approximately 120 charged with using a dangerous weapon or causing bodily injury. During his press conference, Graves never used the name of the former president but said the violence on Jan. 6 was a direct result of claims that the election was stolen.
“The story of Jan. 6 began shortly after the election,” Graves said, “when a number of our fellow citizens were radicalized into believing they needed to use any means necessary, including violence, to prevent Joseph R. Biden from becoming president.”
Much of Graves’ presentation focused on some of the Justice Department’s largest successes in 2023, including the successful convictions of four Proud Boys leaders on seditious conspiracy charges and lengthy sentences handed down to both Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. In September, former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for helming a plot to incite violence at the Capitol. In May, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes received 18 years in prison for conspiring with other members of his militia to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power.
Graves, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney within the DOJ’s fraud and public corruption section before being appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, said that, had rioters’ plans succeeded, the country’s system of government “would have been in peril.
“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” he said.
Shortly before Graves’ presentation began, at the nearby federal courthouse a member of a Florida chapter of the Proud Boys, Christopher Worrell, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting police with pepper gel. Numerous other Jan. 6 sentencings may soon find themselves on hold, however, as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up an appeal over a felony obstruction charge used in more than 300 cases.