Biden DOJ May Charge Up To 200 More Jan. 6 Defendants As Trump Takes Office

The Department of Justice (DOJ) may still charge up to 200 more Jan. 6 defendants, according to Politico.

With Trump set to take office in just 14 days, the DOJ is weighing adding hundreds of new defendants to the over 1,500 who have already been charged with crimes related to their conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Politico reported.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, who has led the prosecution of Jan. 6 defendants, announced last week he would resign from his position before Trump takes office.

“Over the past four years, our prosecutors, FBI agents, investigators, and analysts have conducted one of the most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in the Justice Department’s history,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday. “They have analyzed massive amounts of physical and digital data, identified and arrested hundreds of people who took part in unlawful conduct that day, and initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct.”

“The public servants of the Justice Department have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity,” Garland continued.

Of those who may still face charges, 60 are suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers, according to Politico.

Trump has said on several occasions that he will pardon Jan. 6 defendants.

“I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system,” Trump told NBC News on Dec. 8. “They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system.”

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the DOJ interpreted an obstruction statute designed to target financial crimes too broadly when it used it to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants. The government has abandoned the charge in nearly 100 pending cases since the ruling, according to the DOJ.