WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice and the FBI embarked on a manhunt across the country to track down dozens of people who attacked the Capitol last week, according to law enforcement officials, as they grapple with the consequences of the government’s widespread failure in protect the building.
Investigators are chasing more than 150 suspects for trial, a total that is almost certain to increase, an official said. Analysts are also searching for intelligence to identify any role that domestic terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries may have played in radicalizing Americans who were among the protesters, according to a law enforcement official informed of the investigations.
Some indications have emerged that at least some attackers have launched a more organized attack, said Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio and chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police on Monday. Initial reports on Wednesday afternoon about bombs planted near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic Party diverted police officers’ attention from the rape that was taking place on Capitol Hill, said Ryan, suggesting a “level of coordination”.
Two Capitol Police officers were also suspended, according to Ryan: one who was seen in photos with protesters and another who walked through the crowd wearing a hat with President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”. The Capitol Police also opened internal investigations into the actions of about 10 to 15 policemen during the violence, although the nature of the investigations was unclear, and Mr. Ryan warned that he saw no sign that any officer helped coordinate the attack.
In the Justice Department’s extensive criminal investigation conducted at the FBI’s Washington office – the second largest in the country, with some 1,600 employees -, agents and support staff established a national network to identify members of the mafia. At least five people died during the attack and immediately after the attack, including a police officer. In particular, the FBI is working closely with the Capitol Police and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department to track down those who attacked the police.
The FBI acted quickly to ease some bureaucratic obstacles to making arrests and received more than 70,000 photo and video tips after asking the public for help in identifying suspects. The agents also scanned airline passenger records and passenger videos to and from Washington to find possible suspects.
But some prosecutors have expressed concern that the Justice Department is creating a bottleneck by forwarding lawsuits through Washington. The lack of public appearances by senior national security officials in the Trump administration has also sparked criticism that the federal government is not offering guarantees, information or leadership that it would normally give in a time of national crisis.
The Justice Department has already gathered enough information to charge and arrest more than a dozen people, some of whom emerged as faces of the attack, like a man carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pulpit and another photographed with his feet on a table inside. her office.
It is not clear whether the agents plan to make more arrests on Monday.
The stunning images of the attack demonstrated the spectrum of people involved in the violence. Signs of “stop stealing” were prominent – visual evidence that Trump’s false allegations of a fraudulent election resonated with a broad coalition of conservatives, evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, militia groups, anti-communist activists, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.
“These are diverse people with different ideologies, but the common thing is that they all follow the leadership of Donald Trump,” said Gregory W. Ehrie, a former senior FBI agent who was the bureau’s domestic terrorism czar from 2013 to 2015 and now is the vice president of law enforcement and analysis for the Anti-Defamation League.
“We are seeing this extremist group forming in real time and it is led by Donald Trump,” he added. “These are difficult comparisons to make for all of us, but he stood in front of a crowd and told them to go to the Capitol, and everyone heard it.”
Ehrie said the FBI would have to figure out how to strengthen its domestic terrorism operations while balancing concerns about First Amendment protections for hate speech.
“There will definitely be a readjustment,” he said. “I am happy that I am no longer sitting in that seat.”
Some images of the riot showed what appeared to be an organized effort among people to combine military equipment moving as a unit through the crowd and to the Capitol, which raised fears that some of those involved acted as part of a well-coordinated effort to break into the building.
The Department of Justice’s manhunt is highly unusual and complex. Like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing investigation, the FBI is relying heavily on videos from cell phones and security cameras to identify the perpetrators.
But while other fatal and notorious attacks on the country, such as the Oklahoma City bombing or the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, were carried out by foreign adversaries or involved some people acting in secret, Wednesday’s riot was conducted by hundreds of American citizens who were encouraged by the President of the United States and, in many cases, openly bragged about their actions on social media.
Investigators are also grappling with the consequences of the government’s failure to protect one of the safest buildings in Washington as Vice President Mike Pence and hundreds of members of Congress came together, jeopardizing the line of leadership succession, which includes the Mr. Pence and congressional leaders such as Spokesperson Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and president pro tempore of the Senate.
After the crowd broke into the building, damaged property, stole computer equipment and other files and attacked officers, an oppressed Capitol Police – the force assigned to protect the complex – allowed almost a dozen to leave peacefully. The failure to detain the suspects has created a major obstacle for federal investigators, who are now expected to spread out and seek them out across the country.
Despite the high-profile nature of the attack and the complexity of the investigation, no federal police or homeland security officer went in front of television cameras or answered questions, working almost silently while Congress and the White House debated the best. way of responding to the role the President played. Democrats released a preliminary impeachment article on Monday, accusing Trump of inciting insurrection. A senior prosecutor in Washington last week contained the prospect that the Justice Department would investigate him.
The silence is a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s response last year to protests against police violence and racism. Former Attorney General William P. Barr instructed all 93 United States attorney’s offices to aggressively pursue charges – including sedition – against protesters in protests, much to the surprise of some prosecutors.
Instead, the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, informed federal prosecutors across the country, in a memo from his vice president, that all investigations should be done at the United States attorney’s office in Washington and in the main Justice Department there, who take the lead in all cases. Any efforts to prosecute suspects in their home states needed to be carried out by officials in Washington first for approval.
The guideline confused prosecutors across the country, according to four who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to reporters. Although the attackers broke the law in Washington, some of them may have organized themselves in their home states and traveled to participate in the attack.
And although the siege last week took place in Washington, giving jurisdiction to the US attorney, prosecutors elsewhere said they believed they could help the department bring the attackers to justice more quickly.
Prosecutors also received no clear reason for headquarters’ response, they said.
FBI leaders took a more aggressive internal stance, issuing three memos to agents in the field on Saturday about the agency’s efforts to find and prosecute everyone involved in the attack on the Capitol.
A memo reminded agents of three federal statutes that they can apply when filing criminal complaints: one against seditious conspiracy that is rarely used and most commonly invoked violations of laws against federal disturbances and civil disorder. Another email to ensure that all agents addressed the investigation in a uniform manner included two attachments: a list of questions to be asked of all possible suspects and standardized language that could be used to establish the probable cause in their documents judicial.
The investigation also addresses the extent to which police and military personnel helped the demonstrators.
Captain Emily Rainey, an Army officer who told the Associated Press that she has transported more than 100 people to Washington for Trump’s rally, is being investigated by the Army for any connection to the disturbances, according to a military officer. Mrs. Rainey resigned in October, but was not prepared to leave until this spring.
Several police officers in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington State were suspended or referred for internal review for participating in the rally.
Investigators said that much was unknown about the attack and could remain undefined in the days leading up to the inauguration.
Jennifer Steinhauer and Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington.