More than 535 defendants across nearly 50 states have been charged in the six months since the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol Building, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on July 6.
That includes 495 defendants who have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement.
Nearly 235 defendants were charged with obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so, the office noted.
At least 165 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including more than 50individualswho have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, the DOJ said.
So far, 10 people have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, from misdemeanors to felony obstruction.
“This was not dissent. It was disorder,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on July 6 to mark the six-month anniversary of the U.S. Capitol breach. “It posed an existential crisis and a test of whether our democracy could survive—a sad reminder that there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy.”
Efforts to probe the events that unfolded on Jan. 6 have intensified in recent weeks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on July 1 to serve on the select committee investigating events at the U.S. Capitol.
The Democrat-controlled House voted in favor of forming the panel on June 30, despite Republicans saying it isn’t necessary because investigations are already underway in other committees of jurisdiction. Cheney, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, will be the only Republican on the eight-member panel.
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