January 6 arrests by Biden-Harris DOJ soared in 2024 despite looming election
As voters went to the polls Nov. 5 — many motivated by the weaponization of government by the Biden-Harris administration against its political foes — the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the FBI made its 1,561st Jan. 6 arrest.
In its 46-month statistical update, the DOJ also said only one defendant received a sentence reduction based on the landmark 2024 Supreme Court ruling in Fischer v. United States. On June 28, the high court greatly restricted use of the controversial 20-year obstruction of an official proceeding felony charge in Jan. 6 cases.
‘All defendants charged in the January 6 prosecution have been charged with some form of trespass or disorderly conduct.’
According to the new report, the FBI made 296 Jan. 6 arrests during the first 10 months of 2024, a 23% increase. Since Nov. 6, 2023, the FBI has arrested 359 people, a 30% increase. Arrests are up 73% since November 6, 2022, the DOJ reported.
Of the 979 defendants who have pleaded guilty in Jan. 6 cases, 32% were for felony charges and 68% were for misdemeanors, the report said.
Of those who pleaded guilty to felonies, 169 were for assaulting law enforcement, 127 for obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, and 69 for assaulting law enforcement with a deadly or dangerous weapon, the DOJ report said.
Of the 1,028 defendants who have had their cases fully adjudicated, 63% were sentenced to incarceration; 14% were allowed to serve their sentences in home detention.
More than 200 defendants have been found guilty in contested trials, including 10 for seditious conspiracy.
District of Columbia juries have found every Jan. 6 defendant sent before them guilty of at least some of the charges. Several defendants were fully acquitted in bench trials. Another 40 defendants were found guilty based on an agreed-upon set of facts, the report said.
The most common charge against Jan. 6 defendants is for entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor. Use of the charge was recently upheld 2-1 by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The DOJ no longer reports the number of defendants charged with entering and remaining. The monthly report now simply says, “All defendants charged in the January 6 prosecution have been charged with some form of trespass or disorderly conduct, in violation of federal criminal codes.”
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Michael Fitzgerald of Janesville, Wisconsin, is being prosecuted by the DOJ despite suffering from terminal colon cancer. Read his story here.
Photo for Blaze News by Chris Duzynski
The most recent tally — reported in August 2024 — said 1,417 defendants were charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
The DOJ has charged more than 355 individuals with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, a 20-year felony. Prosecutors have accounted for only 259 of these defendants in its monthly report since July 2024.
In the Fischer ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court largely curtailed the DOJ’s unprecedented, novel use of the white-collar crime statute 18 U.S. Code 1512(c)(2) in Jan. 6 cases.
The DOJ said it has dropped the 1512(c)(2) charge against 96 of the 126 defendants who had cases pending at the time of the Supreme Court ruling. Prosecutors “will continue to pursue the charge for approximately 13 defendants and continues to assess the remaining defendants,” the report said.
Of the 133 defendants whose cases were fully adjudicated before the Fischer ruling, the DOJ didn’t oppose dismissing the 1512(c)(2) charge in 54 cases, the report said.
Only one defendant has had a sentence reduction due to the Fischer ruling, the report said. In a number of resentencing hearings, judges have granted upward departures from federal sentencing guidelines to offset any benefit from dismissal of the 1512(c)(2) charge.
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