Investigators used 500 grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to collect information on the peerless investigation, Michael Sherwin, the top US prosecutor in Washington, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The network has spread across the country, with prisons in Florida, California, New Hampshire and Hawaii.
Many of the at least 150 defendants that CNN identified were accused of entering a restricted building without legal authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Hill. The most serious charges range from theft of government property, conspiracy, interstate threats and aggression to law enforcement.
The Justice Department now has more than 400 subjects in its investigation, Sherwin said on Tuesday.
Steven D’Antuono of the FBI said the agency had received 200,000 digital media tips from the public about the insurrection.
Police officers told CNN that they expect hundreds of other riot participants to be arrested in the future. But they also say that investigators have begun to focus on more complex cases, such as extremist groups that participated in the attack, and less on lower fruit arrests and charges.
These officials also believe that complex investigations are likely to take months to try to piece the pieces together, in part because many attackers have done their best to hide their identities and their involvement.
Cases that have already resulted in arrests are progressing slowly, with many of the defendants appearing before federal judges in their home states before moving to Washington, DC. There is also a bottleneck in the DC federal court, and many have yet to see a judge or have their charges formally indicted. The Justice Department has agreed to allow many of the defendants to be released pending trials, with a number of restrictions, including DC’s removal orders.
Some defendants, such as men who allegedly threatened to kill lawmakers or brought bombs to the Capitol, will remain in detention, the judges have decided, and some are in prison while federal judges review their detention decisions.
More charges to come
The agency is still offering a $ 75,000 reward for help investigating the pipe bomb, D’Antuono said.
“It is challenging, it is complex and it is big … at the FBI, we do big, we challenge and we are complex,” D’Antuono said at a news conference. “This case is unique in its magnitude and number of issues.”
The flood of arrests and prosecutions takes place against a backdrop of how the new Biden government begins to take over the reins of the Justice Department, which could talk about its continued absence.
This story was updated with information from the FBI and the Department of Justice.