A The Justice
Department secured the conviction
of four leaders of the Proud Boys
for seditious conspiracy related
to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
In addition, those defendants
and a fifth member of the proud boys
were all convicted of felonies,
including obstructing
Congress's certification of the 2020
presidential election results
and conspiring to prevent
Congress and federal officers
from discharging their duties.
The evidence presented at trial detailed
the extent of the violence at the Capitol
on January 6th
and the central role
these defendants played
in setting into motion
the unlawful events of that day.
Today's verdict makes clear
that the Justice Department
will do everything in its power
to defend the American people
and American democracy.
Since the January six attack.
The Justice Department has conducted
one of the largest, most complex
and most resource
intensive investigations in our history.
We have worked to analyze massive amounts
of physical and digital data.
We have recovered devices, decrypted
electronic messages, triangulated phones,
and pored through
tens of thousands of hours of video.
We have also benefited
from tens of thousands of tips
we received from the public
following these digital
and physical footprints.
We were able to identify
hundreds of people who often masked
took part in the unlawful conduct of
that day.
I am grateful
to the department's prosecutors,
FBI agents, investigators, analysts
and others
who have worked on these cases
with extraordinary
diligence, skill, integrity and courage
over the past two years.
The department has secured more
than 600 convictions
for a wide range of criminal conduct
on January 6th,
as well as in the days
and weeks leading up to the attack.
We have secured the conviction
of defendants who fought,
punched, tackled and even tased
police officers
who were defending the Capitol that day,
who crushed one officer in a door
and dragged another down
a flight of stairs,
who attacked law enforcement officers
with chemical agents
that burn their eyes and skin,
and who assaulted officers
with pipes, poles
and other dangerous or deadly weapons.
We have secured
the convictions of defendants
who obstructed
the certification
of a presidential election,
as well as the subsequent
criminal investigation
in the events of January six
and now after three trials.
We have secured the convictions
of leaders of both the proud boys
and the Oath Keepers
for seditious conspiracy,
specifically conspiring
to oppose by force
the lawful transfer of
presidential power.
Our work will continue.
At my Senate confirmation
hearing just over a month
after January 6th.
I promised that the Justice Department
would do everything in its power
to hold accountable those responsible
for the heinous attack
that sought to disrupt
a cornerstone of our democracy.
The peaceful transfer of power
to a newly elected government.
And as I have said repeatedly,
the department will conduct
all of its work
in a manner that adheres
to the rule of law
and honors
our obligations to protect the civil
rights and civil liberties
of everyone in this country.
Today's verdict is another example
of our steadfast commitment
to keeping those promises.
The Justice Department
will never stop working
to defend the democracy
to which all Americans are entitled.
All right.
That's Attorney General Merrick Garland,
not taking any questions.
Speaking after four proud
boys, four leaders of the far
right militia, the proud boys, four
were convicted of seditious conspiracy
earlier today
for their roles
in the January six
insurrection, for trying to stop
what Attorney General Garland
called a cornerstone of democracy,
the peaceful transfer of power.
Garland
calling today's verdict proof
that the Justice Department
will do everything in its power to defend
American democracy.
Let's bring in CNN's
Evan Perez and former federal prosecutor
Ellie Hoenig.
Evan,
you can tell there
that the attorney general feels
as though he's doing
what needs to be done.
Yeah, Jake, today's verdict certainly
at least getting four
of these leaders of the of the proud boys
convicted on this
very rarely brought charge.
Seditious conspiracy
was a big deal for the department.
It's something that the attorney general
and others
really weighed
for weeks
and weeks and weeks before
they actually brought it.
And you can see the fact that he came out
and spoke about this,
the importance
that they gave, having the jury after 18
to 20 weeks here of trial,
coming back and rendering this verdict.
Let me say,
just step back a couple of minutes here,
a little bit here for to talk
about what this means. Right.
There were two parts
or there were a couple of parts
to the effort
to try to overturn the election.
One of them
was simply that the former president
tried to claim that there was fraud
and doing
everything they could
to try
to get the states to not
send in their electors.
The other part
the Justice Department has pointed out,
is that the people who gathered there
on January six
tried to make a last ditch effort
after the former president
had failed in every other way.
They these people
tried to get into the Capitol
to try to disrupt
the proceedings of Congress,
and they nearly succeeded.
It wasn't
if it wasn't
for the fact
that Mike Pence refused to leave
and the members of the Senate
and Congress came back
and certified
that election that night,
it it
very well could have happened, right?
They could
they could have succeeded in this.
And so one of the things that we heard
from the attorney general,
there is over a thousand
people have been charged
for, you know, breaching the Capitol,
the violence related to that.
600 so far
have either been pleaded guilty
or have been convicted.
The big question
that remains,
and I think you're going to hear
of this from earlier
a little bit,
is whether the former
president himself and people around him
in the other part of this
this conspiracy,
if that this effort, rather,
whether they will face
similar charges and we don't know.
Yeah.
And Ellie,
I'll get to you in a second,
but I want to go to CNN's
Caitlin Polanski's outside the courthouse
here in Washington, D.C..
Caitlin, Attorney General Garland
noting that now
both the leaders of the Proud Boys
and the Oath Keepers,
two different distinct far right
militia groups,
leaders of both have been found
guilty of seditious conspiracy.
And as we've talked about for years
now, that's
not an easy
charge to prove in a court of law.
It's not at all.
It is very, very difficult
for the Justice Department
to even get to the point
where they want to bring that charge.
It was a charge
that first was borne
out of the Civil War.
And then in recent years
until the January six insurrection,
it essentially was a very, very difficult
to gain any convictions on.
And so since then,
the Justice Department has used
all of the video.
Garland was talking about thousands
and thousands of hours of video,
all of the photos,
text messages,
other messages that they gathered
between these members of the groups
to be able to say,
these aren't
just people
that arrived at the Capitol
on January six and were violent.
There were swept up in the crowd,
grabbed a riot
shield and broke into a window
like Dominic
Barzola was convicted of today.
But there were people
who were in the leadership positions
in both the Oath Keepers
and in the Proud Boys,
who were collectively wanting
to use politics
to spur violence in this country.
And they came
together, made an agreement.
And that agreement was
that they would want to use
some sort of force to disrupt democracy
and to disrupt the functioning
of the U.S. government on January six.
It is not a small thing at all
for the Justice Department
to have these convictions today.
All right, Ali,
it has been more than two years
since a Capitol insurrection.
Insurrection.
What do you make
of the pace of these convictions,
the aggressiveness of these charges
from the Justice Department?
Well, Jake,
I think Merrick Garland
and the Justice Department
absolutely deserve
credit for today's verdict.
It's a big deal.
It's a historic case.
Same thing
for the prior convictions
for seditious conspiracy
against Oath Keepers and proud boys.
However, in the big picture,
they have not done the job.
When you look at seditious conspiracy
charges, we've now
seen ten people in this entire country
convicted of seditious conspiracy
in relation to January six, ten people.
Does anyone realistically think
only ten people we've seen the video
of how many people
were storming the Capitol,
trying to obstruct
the counting of ballots.
I think they've been insufficient
in the way
they've charged
seditious conspiracy against the people
who physically entered the Capitol.
Now, who is the single most powerful
political person
who Merrick Garland has charged
with anything
in connection to January six?
There is none.
Nobody above ground
level has been charged with anything.
Enrique Tarrio,
the leader of the Proud Boys,
is the person who wasn't
physically present,
who's been charged in relation
to January six, and Garland
quoted himself just now.
He went back to his confirmation hearing
and he quoted how he said,
we will pursue those responsible
for this attack.
But he said that a bunch of times since,
and he has said
previously three words
that he left out today.
At any level,
that's usually the way he says it.
We will pursue anybody at any level.
They've not lived up to that
in two and a half years,
and I think it was conspicuously absent
from what he said today.
But who would you go after?
I mean, based on what we know
today, who who at any level?
Who else should be prosecuted?
And, you know,
keeping in mind
what Omar on the Wire would say,
if you come for the king,
your best not miss.
Yeah, well, familiar with that quote.
First of all, I would charge
anybody who breached the Capitol chamber
that day.
And there were hundreds or dozens of them
who went in there.
Anybody who
physically went into the Capitol
and took steps onto that floor.
What were they seeking to do
to obstruct the electoral count
that meets
the legal definition of sedition?
If they used any force,
if they attacked a police officer,
if they destroyed property?
So I would start with that defense.
As I said earlier,
judges have criticized DOJ
for not bringing enough
seditious conspiracy charges
for being too timid in their charges
against people who breached the Capitol.
With respect to Donald Trump,
I do think the evidence is there,
based on what we know,
to charge him,
based on all the things
he said, based
on the reasonable inferences
that we've heard from these defendants.
They believe that he was instructing them
and they reasonably took it to mean,
I want you to go in there
and block the counting
of the electoral ballots.