WASHINGTON | Organized insurrection or spontaneous riot, the investigators who must shed light on the assault on the Capitol have been in a sprint of arrests for ten days in order to prevent the nomination of Joe Biden from also turning sour.
“To those of you who have taken part in the violence, here is something you need to know: Every FBI office in the country is looking for you. Even your friends and family are warning us, ”said Deputy Director of the Federal Police Bureau in Washington, Steven D’Antuono.
According to him, 40 people have already been arrested and more than 100 have been taken into custody across the United States by FBI teams working day and night.
He also adds that nearly 270 suspects have already been identified.
Federal investigators are looking for thousands of leads in a dual effort to prosecute people involved in last week’s attack on Capitol Hill and to try to prevent further attacks across the country and in Washington, during the inauguration of Joe Biden Wednesday, according to the CNN network.
Coordination
What also worries the authorities is that the investigation would reveal “signs of coordination”, in particular communications between people who were inside the building and those who were outside, explained the public prosecutor. United States District of Columbia’s Michael Scherwin at a press conference Friday.
Finding out if there was a “global command structure” and organized teams is the “number one priority” for investigators, he added.
Videos, photos and communications analyzed since the violence carried out on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump suggest a worrying level of preparation.
In a case filed by the Department of Justice in a court requesting the continued detention of Jacob Chansley, the conspiratorialist photographed in shaman attire, prosecutors suggested that the rioters wanted to “capture and murder elected officials of the state government -United “.
However, prosecutors backed down during the day on Friday and demanded that this sentence be removed from the document, unwilling to debate the quality of their evidence before a possible trial.
Several elected officials noticed that the pro-Trump protesters who vandalized the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed familiar with the building, which is nevertheless a maze.
“They knew where to go,” Democratic Representative James Clyburn told CBS.
– With Clara Loiseau, Le Journal de Montréal