The Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, began as Congress was certifying now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over former President Donald Trump and descended into chaos following a speech outside from Trump himself. The events of the day sparked Trump’s second impeachment and subsequent acquittal.
Six months on, a number of key questions remain.
Pipe bomb suspect still at-large
The suspect who planted pipe bombs the night before outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees in Washington remains unknown and at large. One pipe bomb was placed in an alley behind the RNC, while the other was placed next to a park bench near the DNC.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House in June, saying, “We are aggressively investigating. … That’s one of the investigations that we’re particularly concerned about.”
Video footage released by the FBI shows the suspect wearing a gray hoodie, a face mask, black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow logo, and carrying a bag while strolling through the Capitol Hill neighborhood between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5.
The FBI said it released the footage in the hopes that someone could identify the person’s gait, body language, or mannerisms. The FBI also put out a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification or arrest of the pipe bomb suspect in January, and that reward was increased to $75,000 then to $100,000.
The FBI said the components of the devices include 1-by-8-inch threaded galvanized pipes, a kitchen timer, and homemade black powder. Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, said in March that “these pipe bombs were viable devices that could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death.”
It has been widely speculated, although not proven, that the pipe bombs were planted the night before to distract from the Capitol riot the next day.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund testified: “We were dealing with two pipe bombs that were specifically set right off the edge of our perimeter to, what I suspect, draw resources away.”
Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton told the House in May: “If those pipe bombs were intended to be a diversion, it worked.”
The shooting of Ashli Babbitt
A number of Republican lawmakers, as well as Trump, have begun to call for the release of the identity of the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the riot, joining her family in claiming that the fatal shooting of the 35-year-old Air Force veteran and Trump supporter was unjustified.
The Justice Department said in April that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division “conducted a thorough investigation.” The officials “determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.”
Trump asked who was responsible for Babbitt’s death in an early July email statement and brought it up again during a rally in Florida on Saturday, telling the crowd, “Who shot Ashli Babbitt? We all saw the hand. We saw the gun. … Now, they don’t want to give the name. … It’s got to be released.”
Dr. Francisco Diaz, the chief medical examiner for the District of Columbia, determined in April that Babbitt’s death was caused by a “gunshot wound to the left anterior shoulder.” A video shows Babbitt attempting to climb through a window into the Speaker’s Lobby when she was shot and killed by the yet-unidentified officer.
The DOJ said that “the focus of the criminal investigation” related to Babbitt’s shooting “was to determine whether federal prosecutors could prove that the officer violated any federal laws” and concentrated on a federal criminal statute governing the potential deprivation of civil rights.
DOJ said the investigation “revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber,” and so “acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences to Ms. Babbitt’s family, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Department of Justice have therefore closed the investigation.”
The Justice Department argued its investigation “determined that Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside Speaker’s Lobby.” Police “positioned themselves between the doors and the mob,” while “members of the mob attempted to break through the doors by striking them and breaking the glass with their hands, flagpoles, helmets, and other objects.”
A video shows the Capitol Police officer wearing a face mask and with his gun drawn inside the Speaker’s Lobby as Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag like a cape, attempted to clamber through the broken door. It was then that the Justice Department says the officer “fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor.”
John Sullivan, a self-styled leftist activist who has since been indicted on a host of crimes, shot a graphic video of Babbitt’s death inside the Capitol.
Mark Schamel, an attorney for the officer who shot Babbitt, said in February, “There’s no way to look at the evidence and think he’s anything but a hero.”
“It’s a false narrative that he issued no verbal commands or warnings,” Schamel told reporters. “He was screaming, ‘Stay back! Stay back! Don’t come in here!’”
“There should be a training video on how he handled that situation. What he did was unbelievable heroism,” the lawyer said, claiming that the officer “stopped a potential massacre.”
Terrell Roberts, an attorney representing Babbitt’s family, rejected the Justice Department’s decision in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The actual evidence is this: The officer shot an unarmed woman who was not an immediate threat to him or any Member of Congress. That is inconsistent with any claim of self-defense or the defense of others, period,” he said, adding, “We strongly disagree with the U.S. Attorney’s decision. But we are not dissuaded from our goal of ultimately vindicating Ashli Babbitt’s constitutional rights in the civil arena.”
Days after the DOJ decision was made, Babbitt’s husband, Aaron Babbitt, filed a request for documents from the Washington, D.C., police department under the Freedom of Information Act. Her family also plans to file a lawsuit against the Capitol Police and the officer for at least $10 million.
Continued Democratic claims about Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick
Prominent Democrats, including Biden, continue to suggest that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died as a result of the violence at the Capitol despite the medical examiner’s office in Washington concluding that his death was natural.
Sicknick, 42, died on Jan. 7, one day after the riot.
Biden mischaracterized the death of Sicknick in June, claiming Sicknick was killed by “criminals.”
The chief medical examiner’s office told the Washington Examiner in April that Sicknick’s “cause of death” was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis,” a stroke, and the “manner of death” was “natural.” The medical examiner said Sicknick was sprayed with a chemical substance at about 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, collapsed at the Capitol at about 10 p.m., and was transported by emergency services to a local hospital. He died at about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7. Francisco Diaz, the chief medical examiner, told the Washington Post that Sicknick died after suffering two strokes, did not suffer an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, and bore no evidence of either external or internal injuries, but he contended that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.“
The medical examiner’s office noted that the term “natural” is “used when a disease alone causes death.”
In its initial statement on Sicknick, the Capitol Police said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and that he “was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki falsely claimed in May that there were “a number of officers” who died on the day of the Capitol riot. In the days following the riot, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith and Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood both died by suicide.
The New York Times reported on Jan. 8, citing “two law enforcement officials,” that Sicknick was beaten with a fire extinguisher and died hours later. In February, the outlet updated its report, but a Democratic pretrial impeachment memo had already cited the reporting.
Julian Khater and George Tanios were charged in March with coordinating to assault Sicknick and two other officers with a chemical spray, but the men were not accused of killing Sicknick, and no one has been charged in connection with his death.
A bipartisan Senate report on the Capitol riot released in June also contended that seven individuals, including three police officers, “ultimately lost their lives” as a result of the Capitol siege.
Future investigations — Congress, sedition, and Trump
Questions also remain about the future of the investigations related to the Capitol riot, especially following speculation from Justice Department officials about sedition charges that have not emerged and after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi launched a select committee stacked with staunch Trump critics.
The Democratic-led House voted in late June to create a select committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol after Senate Republicans used the filibuster to reject an earlier attempt at an independent commission. The proposal allows Pelosi to appoint 13 members, with five appointed after “consultation” with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The committee will be tasked with reporting on the “facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack,” including “the influencing factors that fomented such an attack.” The committee’s leader will be authorized to issue subpoenas without input from the Republican minority.
Pelosi announced her picks for the committee, including controversial Trump critic Adam Schiff and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump this year. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, was also picked for the committee. Thompson filed a lawsuit in February against Trump, former Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, reaching the conclusion that the four “conspired to incite an assembled crowd to march upon and enter the Capitol of the United States for the common purpose of disrupting, by the use of force, intimidation and threat, the approval by Congress of the count of votes cast by members of the Electoral College.”
With the 2022 midterm elections already looming, it remains to be seen how long the committee’s work will last, whether McCarthy will select Republicans to join, whether Pelosi will accept his picks, and whether the committee will attempt to subpoena GOP lawmakers, former Trump officials, or Trump himself.
Michael Sherwin, the former acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told 60 Minutes in March that authorities were investigating Trump’s potential criminal liability and that he also believed the evidence existed to file sedition charges against some of those involved in the Capitol riot, both things he had been hinting at since January.
“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to D.C. on the 6th,” Sherwin said. “Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?”
Sherwin, who headed off to the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, was also asked about possible sedition charges. He responded, “I believe the facts do support those charges, and I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that.”
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta criticized the Justice Department in a rare rebuke after DOJ officials speculated in the media about possible sedition charges against members of the Oath Keepers, saying he was “surprised” to see Sherwin and other officials discussing the pending investigation in interviews.
“I was surprised — and I’m being restrained in my use of terminology — surprised, to say the least, to see Mr. Sherwin sitting for an interview about a pending case in an ongoing criminal investigation,” the judge said, adding, “As for the New York Times story, I found it troubling that sources within the Department of Justice were detailing the possibility of additional charges in a pending criminal case.”
The judge said he is committed to trying defendants based on the facts of a case rather than speculation.
More than 500 charges — what’s next?
The Justice Department has arrested more than 500 individuals in connection to the riot. But the question of what happens next remains open as a trickle of defendants plead guilty and potential trials loom and as a number of Republicans and Democrats have raised concerns about the prison conditions for the accused.
“How come so many people are still in jail over Jan. 6th when nobody paid a price for the fire and carnage and death that took place in Democrat-run cities throughout our country, including antifa and BLM?” Trump asked during his recent Florida rally. “How come? And why are our Republican leaders like McConnell afraid to take up the subject and talk about it?”
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland compared the Capitol riot to the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and Wray said that nothing, including Jan. 6, could be compared to the “horror” of 9/11. Garland indicated in May that the Justice Department was prioritizing prosecutions related to the siege of the Capitol over those tied to last year’s riots because the events of Jan. 6 were “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.”
The Department of Justice investigation has often focused on actions taken by members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, many of whom it has hit with conspiracy charges. A few guilty pleas occurred last month.
Garland said in late June that the DOJ had “crossed the threshold of 500 arrests.” The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had charged at least 165 people with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees and contended that approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6.
Jail officials in the district decided that the Capitol riot detainees should be held in “restrictive housing” as a safety measure for the accused, and some defendants found themselves in solitary confinement 23 hours a day before their trials have begun. Such measures have been criticized by both sides of the aisle.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in April that “solitary confinement is a form of punishment that is cruel and psychologically damaging … and we’re talking about people who haven’t been convicted of anything yet.” Warren said she was worried that law enforcement officers were trying to “punish” the rioters or to “break them so that they will cooperate.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said, “Nobody should be detained indefinitely in America for domestic law purposes.” Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, agreed, saying, “I think the standard for justice should be the same for everyone.”
Republican senators demanded a host of answers from Garland in June about the DOJ’s alleged “unequal justice” in its handling of the violent protests in 2020 versus the Capitol riot in January.
“We join all Americans in the expectation that the DOJ’s response to the events of Jan. 6 will result in rightful criminal prosecutions and accountability,” the GOP senators said, adding, “DOJ’s apparent unwillingness to punish these individuals who allegedly committed crimes during the spring and summer 2020 protests stands in stark contrast to the harsher treatment of the individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.”
Sherwin vowed in January that “regardless of if it was just a trespass in the Capitol or if someone planted a pipe bomb, you will be charged, and you will be found.”
Capitol Police general counsel Thomas DiBiase said in March that the department had provided more than 14,000 hours of surveillance camera footage to congressional investigators, the FBI, and the Metropolitan Police, with defendants and media outlets seeking access to the footage too.
