Two years after the attack on the Capitol, US police are still searching for 350 participants and one person suspected of planting pipe bombs near Congressional headquarters the day before the attack.
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More than 950 people have been arrested over the past 24 months, Justice Secretary Merrick Garland said in a statement released on Wednesday, two days before the second anniversary of the coup.
More than a third have already been indicted on charges ranging from simple “trespassing” to “incitement to hatred,” and 192 have been sentenced to prison, according to a separate statement from the Washington attorney overseeing this broad investigation.
“However, our work is not over,” and “we remain committed to prosecuting those responsible for the attack on our democracy,” added Merrick Garland.
The federal police are particularly trying to identify 350 suspected violent criminals in the Capitol, including 250 against police officers, and again asked for the public’s help on Wednesday.
In addition, the FBI increased the reward fivefold, from $100,000 to half a million dollars, for any information enabling the arrest of the person who planted a homemade bomb near the seats of the Republican and Democrats on the evening of January 5, 2021.
These never exploded, and were possibly only intended to keep police away from the Capitol shortly before the attack.
“We hope that (this new bounty) will encourage the public to revisit the suspect’s photos and videos,” the federal police wrote in a press release. These depict a person who is difficult to identify because they are wearing a hood, mask, glasses and gloves.
On January 6, 2021, several hundred supporters of Republican President Donald Trump had sowed chaos and violence in the Capitol as elected officials hailed his Democratic rival Joe Biden as the presidential election winner.
For now, prosecutors have focused on those directly involved in the attack that shocked the world, but the Justice Department is also investigating the responsibility of Donald Trump and his loved ones.
Since his declaration of presidential candidacy in 2024, a special prosecutor has been appointed to independently oversee investigations involving him.