On Wednesday, a full 13 arrests connected to the Capitol riot were either announced or unsealed, marking one of the most active days for the Justice Department’s riot investigation so far. Recently, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that authorities had hit a total of 500 arrests connected to the riot — including 100 on charges including assaulting law enforcement officers — and investigators are continuing their work. New arrests include “alleged supporters of extremist right-wing groups including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and “boogaloo boys” movement, and individuals accused of attacking the property of news media,” as The Washington Post explains.
Notably, newly charged individuals include South Carolina resident George Tenney III, who is “accused of being the first to open the east Capitol Rotunda doors from the inside, allowing the mob to enter,” the Post explains. At one point, Tenney — who has served as an administrator for a Trump-supporting Facebook page called PowerHouse Patriot — posted that it’s “starting to look like we may siege the capital building and Congress if the electoral votes don’t go right,” adding “We are forming plans for every scenario.” Those comments obviously suggest pre-meditation of the deadly violence that unfolded.
Other newly arrested members of the Trump cult include Proud Boys members Ricky Willden and Timothy O’Malley, who are residents of California and Florida, respectively, and Willden has been charged with offenses including assaulting law enforcement officers.
Another development in the government’s Capitol riot investigation took place this week when Alabama resident and Oath Keepers member Mark Grods pleaded guilty to charges including two counts of conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The Oath Keepers are a far-right militia group that was, alongside other similar groups, directly involved in the Capitol riot. Grods has now “admitted to several allegations prosecutors have made against [members of the Oath Keepers], including taking firearms to Washington, providing them “to another individual to store in a Virginia hotel,” and racing to the Capitol in two golf carts,” as The Washington Post explains. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) has prominently attempted to debunk the idea that the January riot constituted an “armed insurrection,” but weapons were apparently stored nearby and meant to be available for usage around the Capitol.
Elsewhere, the House has voted in favor of creating a select committee to investigate the riot after Republicans blocked a bill that would have created an independent, non-Congressional commission to examine the incident. Like other Congressional panels, the committee that the House opted to form will have powers like the ability to issue subpoenas. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that she’d selected Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a prominent critic of Trump’s role in inciting the riot, to serve on the select committee alongside a slate of Democrats.
