Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines. They are all among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.
DC's federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over. “We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has said.
Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences. The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack.
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database. Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.
About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons' custody in June.
On the three-year anniversary of the insurrection, a trio of rioters were finally arrested in an early morning raid on a Florida ranch. The FBI's Tampa division said 24-year-old Jonathan Daniel Pollock, 33-year-old Olivia Michele Pollock and 27-year-old Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III were all apprehended today in Groveland, Florida, west of Orlando.
Jonathan Pollock had been on the lam since the insurrection. Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson were arrested and charged in June 2021 alongside two others, but they vanished while out on bond awaiting trial. The two others, Joshua Christopher Doolin and Michael Steven Perkins, were sentenced in August.
Prosecutors say the five Floridians spent well over two hours attacking police who were trying to defend the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Jonathan Pollock, seen in photographs dressed head-to-toe in military-style tactical gear, is accused of leading a charge against law enforcement with a flagpole. Court documents say he screamed while trying to force his way up Capitol stairs: “Let’s go!”
The Floridians allegedly used stolen riot shields, flagpoles and their bare hands to hit, punch and choke law enforcement. Olivia Pollock, who was also dressed in military-style gear, is accused of attempting to steal an officer’s baton. One of the group could allegedly be heard in video footage of the incident yelling, “We didn’t come all this way just to stand here!”
Well . . . pretty soon these three losers will be standing before a judge. Good luck-- you're going to need it.
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