President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon Jan. 6 protesters have done little to slow the FBI and federal prosecutors, who continue to make arrests and pursue hefty sentences for those who breached the U.S. Capitol grounds more than four years ago.
Authorities made four arrests last week, just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
The FBI charged men from Virginia, California, Ohio and Arkansas with assaulting law enforcement officers based on scuffles with police manning barricades while the Electoral College votes were being certified.
Lawyers said the U.S. attorney’s office has been playing legal hardball by opposing requests to delay proceedings until after the Trump administration takes charge.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the Jan. 6 cases some of his department’s most resource-intensive efforts. Nearly 1,600 people were charged, and 1,100 of the cases were completed. About 60% of cases resulted in prison time.
“You pursued accountability for that attack on our democracy wherever it led — guided only by your commitment to follow the facts and the law,” Mr. Garland told Justice Department employees in his farewell address. “I am proud of the work you have done.”
Critics say the trade-offs far outweigh the good Mr. Garland claims has been done.
Defenders of the protesters say the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were outrageous but the near-blanket treatment of those at the Capitol that day as domestic terrorists is corrosive.
Christopher Macchiaroli, a lawyer who was friendly with some of the police on duty that day, initially was reluctant to take Jan. 6 cases but eventually became involved in one as a favor to a former colleague. He said he was shocked by what he saw from the Justice Department, where he once served as a prosecutor.
He said the U.S. attorney’s office generally used to bring charges of assaulting an officer only in cases of physical injury. In the Jan. 6 cases, every tussle was charged as assaulting or impeding an officer, he said.
He said the FBI deployed SWAT teams to arrest and shackle people with no criminal records and no history of violence. Prosecutors made prison time a goal of nearly every case and changed their prosecution strategy at one point to demand defendants plead guilty to two misdemeanors to ensure some time behind bars.
“There was no proportionality to DOJ’s approach relating to Jan. 6 protesters, labeling them all as insurrectionists, when some were grandparents or couples who walked in and out and took pictures and were in the Capitol for just a few minutes,” Mr. Macchiaroli told The Washington Times.
Mr. Garland even roped in his department’s counterterrorism division and recruited volunteer lawyers from other divisions and U.S. attorney’s offices.
John Pierce, a prominent attorney for the Jan. 6 defendants, said the incident forced the department to neglect other pressing needs.
“The thing that’s really sickening about it is these FBI agents, these prosecutors, were taken off of human trafficking cases and child pornography cases and real crimes the FBI should be investigating [in order] to chase around MAGA grandmothers,” Mr. Pierce said.
Mr. Garland’s team ultimately failed to bag their big prize: Mr. Trump.
Mr. Pierce said the “scorched-earth” approach angered voters and helped fuel Mr. Trump’s stunning election victory in November.
“Obviously, the change in administration will bring closure to this event in our history, and DOJ and FBI can now appropriately focus its resources on the tens of thousands of violent criminals in this country,” Mr. Macchiaroli said.
Since the Nov. 5 election, authorities have opened 19 cases against Jan. 6 defendants.
Among them is a case against Nathan Bordeaux of Virginia. Authorities say he was part of a mob fighting officers outside the Capitol before breaching the building and was near the spot where a rioter was fatally shot.
The FBI said Mr. Bordeaux rushed outside to announce the shooting to other protesters. He then threw a water bottle at two officers.
Court documents don’t reveal why it took authorities four years to arrest him.
Another recent case involves Frank Peter Molinari Girogi Jr. of California. The FBI says he charged at and struck a Capitol Police officer and later, during a pushing match with officers, pulled an officer to the ground by the neck.
The FBI said it received tips in June 2023 and September 2024 identifying Mr. Giorgi from video images of the riot.
The FBI referred an inquiry for this article to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which declined to comment on its recent prosecutions.
Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney who oversaw most of the prosecutions, defended his work in an interview with The Associated Press.
“This is the most recorded crime in the history of the country,” he said.
“The evidence is just overwhelming in these cases. As someone who is a career prosecutor, it’s rare that you have this much evidence, which is why you’re seeing these outcomes,” said Mr. Graves, who stepped down from his post Thursday, days before Mr. Trump’s ascendance.
Mr. Pierce challenged Mr. Graves’ logic. He said the cases result in convictions and lengthy sentences for other reasons.
He said federal authorities are trickling out evidence that could have helped exonerate or mitigate culpability for some defendants.
He pointed to an inspector general’s report last month that belatedly acknowledged 17 FBI informants breached the Capitol grounds as part of the protests. Four of them entered the building, and none has been prosecuted.
“That lends credence to the selective vindictive prosecution argument,” Mr. Pierce said.
Although Mr. Trump has been confident in promising pardons, his team has been coy about exactly who is likely to be covered.
Pam Bondi, Mr. Trump’s attorney general nominee, said at her Senate confirmation hearing that she would evaluate them on a “case-by-case” basis if asked to review potential pardons.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance suggested in a recent interview that Mr. Trump wouldn’t grant pardons to those who were violent toward police officers.
Mr. Pierce said that is problematic.
He said the Justice Department’s police assault prosecutions covered protesters who merely jostled officers or, in some cases, were attempting to protect elderly protesters from being struck by a police baton.
“We need to move on from this. The easiest way to move on is to pardon everybody,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s political opponents are furious at the possibility of pardons. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, called the idea “shameful” and “utterly outrageous.”
“It is wrong. It is reckless. And it would be an insult to the memories of those who died in connection to that day,” he said.
The Brennan Center for Justice said Mr. Trump has the power but would be wrong to use it this way.
“By advertising his willingness to pardon the people who supported him rather than the Constitution, Trump is sending a message to the people he is counting on to support him this go-round: If they protect him, he will take care of them. It’s a message fit for a would-be authoritarian,” Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney, wrote for the Brennan Center.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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