2023 was a massive year in the Jan. 6 probe. 2024 will be even bigger.
Three years after the Capitol attack, prosecutors are preparing for the trial of the biggest Jan. 6 defendant yet: Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON — Three years after a right-wing mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the federal government has secured hundreds of convictions on charges ranging from unlawful picketing to seditious conspiracy.
Now, in a year shaping up to be one of the most consequential in American politics, prosecutors are preparing for the trial of the biggest Jan. 6 defendant of them all: former President Donald Trump. Trump is currently set to go on trial as soon as March in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith; he has pleaded not guilty.
The third year of the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 attack — the largest criminal probe in Justice Department history — saw some major achievements for federal prosecutors and the FBI as hundreds of cases made their way through the court system, even as hundreds of additional rioters remain at large, with just two years left to bring charges before the statute of limitations expires.
Looming over all of the Jan. 6 criminal cases — more than 1,200 of them — is the potential of a Trump presidency. Trump has promised to pardon “a large portion” of the rioters “very early on” if he wins in 2024. After spreading lies about the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6, Trump is now making false claims about the events of that day, proclaiming on the eve of the third anniversary that the attack was “antifa” and the “FBI” was “leading the charge” on Jan. 6. (There is zero evidence to support Trump’s claim, and many of the rioters who far-right figures have alleged were antifa or undercover federal agents were subsequently arrested and revealed to be Trump supporters.)
Online sleuths, or “sedition hunters,” who have aided the FBI in hundreds of cases against Jan. 6 rioters, meanwhile, say they will continue to put pressure on federal authorities to take action against the hundreds of additional rioters they’ve identified who have not faced charges to date. Online sleuths told NBC News that there are about 1,000 other Jan. 6 participants who have been identified but not arrested.
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