In the last month, the US authorities have presented different charges against at least 211 people, the majority related to extreme right-wing groups, although there are also Army veterans, for their involvement in the assault on the Capitol, in Washington, the last January 6.
The FBI has detailed that several dozen of these people have links with far-right militias, such as Oath Keepers, with three members already on trial, and especially the Proud Boys, with some of their leaders already accused.
They are its leader in Florida, Joe Biggs, one of the first to break into the seat of the Legislative Power, or the head of the New York delegation, Dominic Pezzola, who is known to have used a police shield to break a window and sneak through it.
Among those named is also the leader of the Proud Boys of Hawaii, Nicholas Ochs, and that of Seattle, Ethan Nordean, arrested and whose release has finally been annulled after at first a Washington court assured that he did not represent a danger for the community, there was no risk of flight.
The acting federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, has advanced that they will file additional charges for conspiracy and sedition against those people who have revealed themselves as leaders or “commanders” of the siege of the Capitol, reports NBC.
A month after the attack on the Capitol, the US authorities are unable to determine whether the attack was organized by several groups jointly or each one acted on their own, feeding back once the Capitol was attacked.
The charges brought against these hundreds of people vary greatly from each other, because although some have been accused of an attack against the authority – at least 140 policemen were attacked during the assault – others have only been so for crimes minors, such as illegally entering a protected building.
However, no one has yet been charged in the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Similarly, the FBI has not yet found the person responsible for the placement of two homemade bombs in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties in Washington.
The different prosecutors that are investigating what happened that January 6 have pointed out that although many of them were heavily armed, others were no more than mere onlookers who took advantage of the situation to, in some cases, “give their son a birthday memorable “, or” because I was caught in the crowd and it was a once in a lifetime event. “
The FBI and other investigators have specified that the defendants come from up to 43 states. The profile of the assailants corresponds to that of a man from Texas, or New York, with military training – at least a score of them are veterans of the United States Army – or they have knowledge in handling firearms.
The assault on the Capitol, which left five dead, took place on the day that the United States Congress held a joint session to ratify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, held on November 3. Former President Donald Trump repeatedly rejected the election result, stating that a “fraud” had occurred, although without providing evidence.
Shortly before the siege, Trump held a rally at the gates of the White House in which he encouraged his supporters to question the results of the presidential elections. For this reason, Congress holds a political trial against him on Tuesday, the second in just a year, for “inciting rebellion.”
