The number of people arrested for alleged Jan. 6 crimes at the U.S. Capitol is nearing 1,400 as the rate of arrests showed a sharp increase in the first quarter compared to 2023 and 2022, a report shows. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that as of the close of business on April 5, 1,387 […]

Attorneys for the estate of Ashli Babbitt have filed opposition to an attempt by the U.S. Department of Justice to move a $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit brought by her widower from San Diego federal court to Washington. The DOJ filed a motion for change of venue in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District […]

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Department of Justice’s controversial use of an evidence-tampering law to prosecute Jan. 6 protesters, federal prosecutors indicate they would likely seek longer jail time on other charges to make up the difference. In a March 19 court filing in the case of Anthony Robert Williams, 48, of […]

The Central Intelligence Agency deployed two bomb technicians to assist with a pipe bomb found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 and there were “several CIA dog teams on standby,” according to records obtained by Judicial Watch. References to CIA involvement on Jan. 6 were included in text messages […]

A California physician who gave medical aid to a dying Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, but was forced away from the scene by police has been sentenced to probation as part of a plea deal for his time at the U.S. Capitol. Dr. Austin Brendlen Harris, 43, of Granada Hills, California, was sentenced on […]

An undercover U.S. Capitol Police officer found a pipe bomb planted under a bench outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Jan. 6, 2021, and reported it to a Secret Service detail sitting in two vehicles just feet away, two recent media reports indicate. The undercover officer’s role in the discovery of the pipe bomb, […]

Judicial Watch has filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit for the Jan. 6, 2021, killing of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. The suit, filed in federal court in San Diego, accuses Mr. Byrd of multiple counts of negligence that resulted in Ms. Babbitt’s death by a gunshot […]

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to send James Ray Epps Sr. to jail for six months when he appears for sentencing Jan. 9 on one count of disorderly or disruptive conduct at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The U.S. Department of Justice acknowledged in its 29-page sentencing memorandum that the Epps case […]

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up a Jan. 6 defendant’s appeal of the Department of Justice’s novel use of evidence-tampering law to prosecute hundreds of defendants for obstruction of Congress. A miscellaneous order released by the High Court on Dec. 13 granted the petition of Joseph Wayne Fischer, challenging the most widely charged felony […]

More than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 Capitol Police security video will be made public on a dedicated website starting immediately and ramping up in the coming months, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) announced on Nov. 17. However, individual video clips released to media or other requesters will have the faces of identifiable individuals blurred, […]

A Jan. 6 defendant from Pennsylvania originally charged with felonies including assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol and civil disorder was given a secret plea deal and served his entire prison term without details being recorded on a public court docket. Samuel Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pa., was arrested by the FBI on July 26, […]

One of the most recognizable figures from Jan. 6 came out of obscurity on Sept. 27 for a broadcast interview to tell the world that he is not—and was not—a federal agent who cut down plastic fencing and pulled up steel fence posts at the U.S. Capitol. “I guess I got a hashtag on Twitter […]

WASHINGTON—James Ray Epps Sr. pleaded guilty on Sept. 20 to a single misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, bringing to a close a lightning-quick prosecution for his actions in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. Appearing remotely before Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, Mr. Epps pleaded guilty to disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building […]

Three days before Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving rejected Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s request for National Guard help because Mr. Irving said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would “never go for it,” Mr. Sund testified before a House subcommittee on Sept. 19. Mr. Sund’s revelation came during a 90-minute […]

Three more criminal-case defendants have joined a petition seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court review the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) novel use of an evidence-tampering statute to prosecute those who protested 2020 presidential election results at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Defendants Christopher J. Warnagiris, 43, Christopher J. Carnell, 21, and William […]

WASHINGTON—Henry “Enrique” Tarrio Jr., the Florida-based former chairman of the Proud Boys accused of being the mastermind of a seditious conspiracy to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on Sept. 5 by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly. Mr. Tarrio, 39, of Miami, received the longest […]

WASHINGTON—Proud Boys leader Ethan Michael Nordean was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Sept. 1, based in part on a terrorism enhancement for tearing down a fence on U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. United States District Judge Timothy Kelly gave Mr. Nordean a harsher sentence than three of his co-defendants, but it […]

A New York member of the Proud Boys who used a stolen police riot shield to smash open a window on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Sept. 1 by a federal judge in Washington D.C. Dominic J. Pezzola of Rochester was […]

A federal judge on Aug. 31 sentenced Proud Boys leader Joseph Randall Biggs to 17 years in prison and co-defendant Zachary Rehl to 15 years, calling the destruction of a fence on U.S. Capitol property during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach an act of terrorism. Mr. Biggs, 39, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is the […]

A federal appeals court on Aug. 18 struck down the use of so-called “split sentences” in Jan. 6 cases—imposing both prison and probation for petty-offense misdemeanors such as the often-used charge of “parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.” The 2–1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]