’It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming.’ Note left on VP Pence’s chair during Capitol riot is focus of DOJ inquiry as officials process arrests: prosecutors
The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against nearly 100 people accused of joining in last week’s Capitol riot, including lawless demonstrators who attacked outnumbered police officers — and insurgent cops on the front lines of the violent insurrection.
Prosecutors said the cases were piling up against the agitators who attacked government at the very seat of American democracy. Ten days after the riotous assault on Congress, there were nearly 300 open cases, with the number growing every day, officials said.
Investigators were using tips, videos and confessions to round up suspects, making arrests from coast to coast.
“To those of you who took part in the violence, here’s something you should know,” said Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office. “Every FBI field office in the country is looking for you. As a matter of fact, even your friends and family are tipping us off.”
Authorities were especially interested in the role some law enforcement officers played in the assault. Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said that among the nearly 100 people facing federal felony charges were cops who desecrated their badges to turn on their own government.
“We’re seeing indications that law enforcement officers, both former and current, may have been off duty and participating in this riot activity,” Sherwin told reporters. “We don’t care what your profession is, who you are, who you’re affiliated with. If you were conducting or engaged in criminal activity, we will charge you and you will be arrested and that’s exactly what were doing.”
Among those busted were Rocky Mount, Va. police officers Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson, who were part of the mob and charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct.
In an Instagram post, Robertson had said he was proud of a photo that showed him making an obscene gesture in front of a statue of Revolutionary War hero John Stark.
“CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business,” Robertson wrote. “The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us.”
Assault and disorderly conduct charges were also brought against a retired Pennsylvania firefighter, Robert Sanford, 55. Prosecutors said that during the riot, Sanford threw a fire extinguisher that hit three police officers in an incident that was caught on video.
According to court papers, the extinguisher bounced off the heads of the officers, two of whom were wearing helmets.
Another protester, Peter Stager, of Arkansas, was charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer. Authorities said Stager is the man seen in a video beating an officer with the back end of a flag pole that was holding the American flag.
“Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building,” Stager says in another video outside the Capitol. “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor.”
D.C. prosecutor Sherwin also used the news conference to temper talk that insurgents had intended to “capture and assassinate elected officials,” as described in a pretrial detention memo Thursday night against one of the riotous ringleaders, Jacob Chansley. Sherwin said there was no “direct evidence” to suggest that rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol had formed “kill capture teams.”
Still, Chansley’s own words sent chills through the corridors of Congress, which he had infiltrated to take a seat behind the Senate chamber desk of Vice President Pence. There, prosecutors said, Chansley left an ominous note that read, “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming.”
Chansley, who was adorned in red, white and blue face paint and a buffalo horn hat, called the FBI the day after the siege, and told agents that “he was glad he sat in the Vice President’s chair because Vice President Pence is a child-trafficking traitor,” the court papers said.
Even though Chansley, in the call, said he did not mean the note as a threat to Pence, his lawyer is now seeking a presidential pardon, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s inspector general reportedly is reviewing the security environment that allowed rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol and disrupt the electoral vote count.
Officials from the FBI and the NYPD have said they were aware of threats to the Capitol prior to the Jan. 6 riots and passed that information to the Capitol Police.
But the acting assistant police chief, Sean Gallagher, told congressional leaders that he was not aware of any intelligence from the FBI ahead of time.
The Capitol Police said that it had prepared for only a First Amendment rally as lawmakers assembled to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump.
Before the insurrection ensued, though, Trump himself had encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell.”
