US Capitol Riot Arrests Mount While Some Defendants Plead Out | Voice of America

WASHINGTON – Sandy Weyer is the youngest Trump supporter to be arrested in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Pennsylvania woman is charged with breaching the Capitol and filming an attack on a New York Times photographer in the building while encouraging the attackers to spray the journalist with Chemical Mace.

“Get her out! Mace her!” In the video recording of the attack, one of several that she posted on Facebook, she can be heard screaming, according to a criminal complaint filed against her by federal authorities on Friday.

Weyer was arrested early Monday in her hometown of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and charged with three misdemeanors and one felony of obstructing Congressional confirmation of the November presidential election results. The New York Times photographer was not named in the complaint, but details of the incident were consistent with a report by Times photographer Erin Schaff released on Jan. 7.

Weyer’s arrest is an example of the tenacity with which the FBI pursues virtually anyone involved in what officials have described as an unprecedented attack on American democracy. Five people were killed in the attack, including a Capitol police officer, and more than 100 other officers were injured. Prosecutors say the hour-long rampage also caused at least $ 1.5 million in damage to the historic building.

In the past few days, the FBI has made at least half a dozen arrests related to the attack. Among them: a Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services employee, a Pennsylvania conspiracy theory podcast host, and a Florida couple who was recently featured in an HBO documentary about QAnon.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is leaving after addressing the Justice Department in Washington on June 15, 2021.

Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the total number of arrests had exceeded 500, highlighting the 100th arrest of a defendant for assaulting a federal police officer and the first arrest for assaulting a journalist.

“I assure the American people that the Justice Department will continue to pursue the facts in this case and bring the evidence to bear in order to bring all of the Jan. 6 perpetrators to justice,” Garland said in a statement.

With “hundreds” of additional investigations pending, the prosecution will bring more serious charges against some defendants who are already charged, according to FBI director Christopher Wray.

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a Senate Special Committee on Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats on April 14, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

“So that’s far from over,” Wray told members of the Senate Funds Committee on Wednesday. “And with every arrest and case we bring forward, not only do we increase responsibility for the attack, but we also learn more about what was out there before that so we can use that to move better forward.”

The charges against the more than 500 suspects arrested so far can be divided into three broad categories. At one end of the spectrum stand more than 200 accused accused of entering the Capitol illegally but not engaging in violence. They are charged with misdemeanors such as trespassing and misconduct, both of which result in little to no prison terms.

At the other end are around three dozen members of three far-right groups – the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys – who, according to prosecutors, planned and coordinated their attack on the Capitol months in advance. You have been charged several times with conspiracies and other crimes.

More serious charges are coming

The rest of the defendants face a combination of minor charges of misdemeanor and more serious offenses for property destruction and attacks on police officers.

While an overwhelming majority of the criminal defendants in the United States are entering into plea agreements with prosecutors, only eight defendants of the Capitol attack have spoken so far. In April, Jon Schaffer, a suspected member of the Oath Keepers, first pleaded guilty to January 6-related charges. In early June, Paul Hodgkins, a Florida man who took a selfie in the Senate Chamber during the Siege of the Capitol, became the second defendant to speak out. And last week, in a major development in the investigation, Graydon Young, one of 16 members of the Oath Keepers charged with conspiring to storm the Capitol, pleaded guilty and agreed to work with the prosecutor.

“This is a very emotional case. It is a politically charged case. If you marry these two things, it will be much more difficult for customers to make rational and intelligent decisions about what is legally best for them,” said Randy Zelin. the head of the criminal practice group at the law firm Wilk foreigner in New York and associate professor at Cornell Law School.

More objection agreements in the future?

However, the Justice Department is likely to approve more plea agreements in the coming weeks, added David Haas, a former federal prosecutor and now criminal defense attorney in Orlando, Florida.

“You will likely see that those who were initially charged get their informed consent more quickly than the newer defendants,” Haas said.

So far only one defendant has been convicted. Last week, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, an Indiana woman who called January 6th “the best day ever” on Facebook, was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to a crime and assuming responsibility.

Federal judge Royce Lamberth admitted that he was giving Morgan-Lloyd a “break”, but warned against “trying to create the impression that probation is automatic here because it will not”.