200 cases pending from January 6 as Trump prepares to take office

Federal prosecutors are considering charging up to 200 more people for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including 60 suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers during the riot that nearly derailed Donald Trump’s transfer of power to Joe Biden.

The new figures, released by the Justice Department on Monday, reveal for the first time how many cases prosecutors believe are pending as Trump prepares to take office and threatens to unravel the massive four-year investigation. About 1,583 people have faced federal charges for their roles in the attack, including more than 600 facing felony charges for assaulting or resisting police during the chaos.

Although the Justice Department has released monthly statistics on the Jan. 6 investigation — the largest federal prosecution in its history, according to Justice Department leaders — Monday’s numbers are the first time prosecutors have estimated how many cases are still pending. accused. It is a signal to Trump, who has indicated that he hopes forgive many people involved in the attack but has repeatedly mischaracterized the status of the cases.

About 180 defendants from Jan. 6 faced charges of carrying a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds, and another 153 faced charges of destruction of government property.

Prosecutors also emphasized what they say is their restraint in deciding which defendants to charge. They have largely chosen not to charge people who invaded the Capitol grounds but did not enter the building, and the Justice Department said that discretion led them to reject about 400 cases submitted for possible prosecution by the FBI.

“Due to this exercise of prosecutorial discretion, the typical accused January 6 rioter committed multiple federal crimes,” prosecutors said in the update.

The new figures also highlight how many pending cases Trump will inherit. Although about 1,100 defendants have been convicted and reached sentencing (including 700 who have served prison sentences or received no incarceration at all), another 300 charged cases have not yet reached trial or been convicted, including about 180 facing felony charges.

Trump based his clemency promise on a claim about the status of defendants held in the Washington, D.C., jail, which he said is not safe. But the Justice Department indicated that only 10 of the Jan. 6 defendants, including eight awaiting trial but detained due to other exacerbating factors, remain in the D.C. jail.