Among the issues that federal prosecutors and investigators are looking for: was there a plan to capture and hostage members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose name was invoked in angry shouts by people who broke into a joint session of Congress to try to prevent certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump.
People in military-style clothing, some carrying zipper restrictions, were seen in videos and photos participating in the looting of the Capitol, raising the question of whether to capture lawmakers – or even Vice President Mike Pence – was the goal, according to the a federal security officer.
“I don’t want this tyranny of labels saying it was a sedition, a blow,” said Sherwin.
Prior to Trump’s demonstration on Wednesday, federal and local law enforcement agencies shared raw intelligence showing that some people associated with extremist groups, including some with white supremacist ideologies, should flock to Washington at Trump’s request, according to with law enforcement officers informed about intelligence. One official said intelligence reports at the regional level were widely shared, including with the United States Capitol Police. But officials said none of the intelligence reports suggested any plans to attack the Capitol. Much of the information was called open source reporting, based on social media and extremist Internet sites, where discussions between rally participants shared some of Trump’s false claims about a stolen election.
“It was a lot of noise, as always,” said a federal official who reviewed intelligence reports before Trump’s rally.
More than 20 arrests for federal charges made since Wednesday focused mainly on some of the relatively easy-to-identify insurgents, many of whom proudly posted on social media or even broadcast their participation live, officials said.
The most difficult job now is to try to build potential cases of domestic terrorism against people who helped to engineer the attack, a federal official said.
At a news conference on Friday, a federal prosecutor in Washington told reporters that investigators in some cases are using initial charges to try to arrest people, while continuing to investigate other possible charges.
This includes investigating possible foreign ties to some suspects; a arrested woman asked for a Russian translator during her hearing last week.
“The goal here is to really identify people and get them at least what we call placeholder fees initially, and then we look more deeply at how these people got here, how much planning was involved and any national or foreign actors,” he said Ken Kohl, the main assistant to the US attorney in Washington.
In the midst of this effort, it is equally urgent to prepare for more potential violence from groups planning to come to Washington before and during Biden’s inauguration.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies are redoubling efforts to try to identify people who may be planning violence.
The fact that Wednesday’s crowd managed to subdue an unprepared Capitol police force probably encouraged others who might want to try something similar in Washington or in states across the country, officials say. This includes foreign terrorist groups that have always had the US Capitol as their primary target.