More than a dozen charged over Jan. 6 since last month, DOJ announces

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves revealed Tuesday that his office has brought charges against 16 people in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot since last month.

The announcement from Washington, D.C.‘s, top federal prosecutor came as part of the monthly updates his office has been providing related to the Capitol breach and signals that Graves has not relented on seeking out alleged culprits more than 3 1/2 years after the incident.

The U.S. attorney’s office said 1,488 people faced charges, most of whom were accused of entering or remaining on restricted federal property. A large fraction of those charged were accused of assaulting a police officer or resisting law enforcement. A smaller portion faced charges of damaging or stealing federal property, having a deadly weapon with them, or, in rare instances, seditious conspiracy.

Nearly a thousand defendants have been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges and have received sentences, and more than half of them, 562, were sentenced to prison, according to Graves’s office.

Since last month, Graves has also been monitoring the defendants affected by the Supreme Court’s decision in June to narrow the scope of an obstruction charge brought against 259 people.

The decision came in response to a challenge from one of the defendants, former police officer Joseph Fischer of Pennsylvania, who argued government prosecutors had wrongly applied the charge in his case.

The Supreme Court did not opine on the merits of Fischer’s case, but it did deal a blow to the Department of Justice by ruling that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding requires some element of tampering with physical evidence.

Dozens of defendants could benefit from the ruling and have begun bringing challenges to their charges and sentences.

Other defendants, such as those whose cases have been fully adjudicated and their sentences already served, may not see a benefit to diving back into the legal “meat grinder,” as defense attorney Bill Shipley described it.

One such defendant is Jacob Chansley, better known as the horned helmet-wearing “QAnon Shaman.” Chansley pleaded guilty to one charge of obstructing an official proceeding and has completed his 41-month prison sentence. Chansley did see a small victory Monday when a judge granted the return of his infamous helmet and spear despite objections from prosecutors.

Graves’s office has emphasized in its recent press statements that every person charged with obstructing an official proceeding also faced at least one other felony or misdemeanor charge and that prosecutors will be reviewing whether they need to forgo obstruction charges for defendants on a case-by-case basis.

“The government will be reviewing individual cases against the standards articulated in Fischer, as well as the anticipated ongoing proceedings related to Fischer in the D.C. Circuit, to determine whether the government will proceed with the charge,” the U.S. attorney’s office wrote.