until this past friday federal prosecutor michael sherwin was leading the largest
criminal investigation in u.s history sherwin's team has charged hundreds of suspects in january's
assault on the capitol sherwin has said little but wednesday before he moved to his next assignment
for the department of justice he sat down with us to explain the nationwide dragnet that began
after the riot the story will continue in a moment
as looking eight nine weeks out from the events were over 400 criminal cases which is
a pretty amazing number i think in a very limited time frame 400 defendants correct 400 defendants
and the bulk of those cases are federal criminal charges and significant federal felony charges
five 10 20-year penalties of those 400 cases the majority of those 80 85 percent maybe even 90 you
have individuals both inside and outside the capital that breach the capital trespassed you
also have individuals roughly over a hundred that we've charged with assaulting federal officers and
local police officers the 10 percent of the cases i'll call the more complex conspiracy cases where
we do have evidence that's in the public record where individual militia groups from different
facets oath keepers three percenters proud boys did have a plan we don't know what the full
plan is to come to dc organize and breach the capital in some manner michael sherwin was an
eyewitness to that alleged plan as acting u.s attorney for the district of columbia the top
prosecutor he dressed that morning in running clothes welcome to washington and join d.c police
at the president's rally and i wanted to see the crowd gauge the temperature of the crowd it was
like a carnival environment people were selling shirts popcorn cotton candy i saw hot dogs as
the morning progressed i noticed though there were some people that weren't the typical like carnival
type people i noticed there were some people in tactical gear they were tacked up with kevlar
vests they had the military helmets on those individuals i noticed left the speech is early
they headed to the capitol and sherwin walked with them you could see it was getting more riled up
and more people with bull horns chanting and yelling
and it became more aggressive
where it was initially pro-trump it digressed to anti-government anti-congress anti-institutional
then i eventually saw people climbing the scaffold look at this oh my god the scaffolding was being
set up for the inauguration when i saw people climbing up the scaffolding hanging from it
hanging flags i was like this is going bad fast 49 year old michael sherwin is a federal prosecutor
from miami after successful terrorism and espionage cases the trump administration asked him
to fill a temporary vacancy leading the washington u.s attorney's office that's how on january 6
sherwin found himself launching a 50-state manhunt made urgent by what was coming in just two weeks
after the six we had an inauguration on the 20th so i wanted to ensure and our office wanted to
ensure that there was shock and awe that we could charge as many people as possible before the 20th
and it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back
to dc because they're like if we go there we're going to get charged more than 100 arrests were
made before the inauguration so the first people we went after i'm going to call the internet stars
right the low-hanging fruit the zip tie guy the rebel flag guy the camp auschwitz guy
we wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses
at the public for what they did sherwin told us the most serious cases so far
focus on about two dozen members of far-right militias was there a premeditated plan
to breach the capital that's what we're trying to determine right now we've charged multiple
conspiracy cases and some of those involve single militia groups some of them involve multiple
militia groups for example individuals from ohio militia were coordinating with the virginia
militia group of oath keepers talking about coming to the capital region talking about no specific uh
communication about breaching the capital but talking about going there taking back the house
talking about stopping the steel talking about how they need a show of force in dc
and we see that in december at the center of this video are members of the oath keepers in military
gear michael sherwin says their tight single file formation is evidence of a military military-style
assault that's what you learn in close uh you know order combat how you stay with your team to breach
a room where maybe there's a terrorist to breach a room where maybe there was an al-qaeda operative
the infantry calls it a stack correct a stack or a ranger file a column a close quarter combat
column going up that staircase the oath keepers in that stack what have they been charged with
the most significant charge is obstruction that's a 20-year felony they breach the capital with the
intent the goal to obstruct official proceedings the count the electoral college count defense
attorneys for some oath keepers declined to comment others told us their clients are innocent
prosecutors say 139 police officers were assaulted brian sicknick died the next day
this month sherwin charged two men with assaulting sicknik with a spray designed to repel bears
the medical examiner has not yet determined how officer sicknick died
if the medical examiner determines that his death was directly related to the bear spray
would you imagine murder charges at that point if evidence directly relates that chemical to
his death yeah we have causation we have a link yes in that scenario correct that's a murder case
there could have been many more deaths but sherwin says two dangerous plots failed what
were the intentions of the suspect who was found with the 11 molotov cocktail bombs
so you're referring scott to lonnie kaufman and i think this is emblematic that that day as bad
as it was could have been a lot worse it's actually amazing more people weren't killed
we found ammunition in his vehicle and also in the bed of the vehicle were found 11 molotov cocktails
they were filled with gasoline and styrofoam he put styrofoam in those according to the atf
because when you throw those when they explode the styrofoam will stick to you and act like napalm
kaufman's lawyer did not respond to us in the other plot the fbi is looking for this person seen
near pipe bombs that were planted by the capitol why didn't they explode it appears they weren't
armed properly and there could be a whole host of reasons but they were not hoax devices they were
real devices there are many lesser cases about 140 or so involving charges such as trespassing
brent mayer is a criminal defense attorney who represents one of the defendants
what are some of the possible defenses that you expect to see in these many cases so the first
one is going to be a lack of criminal intent a person may have gone into the capital but they
didn't go into the capital intending to uh obstruct or to impede or to interfere or to
damage or anything else like that i think that's going to be the one most common defense mayer's
client chris grider is a 39 year old texas wine maker he's wearing a yellow don't tread on me flag
why does intent matter intent is a critical element in almost every single uh criminal offense
okay we talk about it in the law of the terms of the men's reya the culpable mental state uh the
person intending to do something that is against the law look your client mr grider was at the head
of the mob that was attacking the entrance to the house chamber he appears to give a man a
helmet which is used to smash the window there just before ashley babbitt is shot to death
what is his defense the images that you see in the video only tell part of the story and that's the
biggest problem and complaint that we have with the government when chris is approaching the door
he's not yelling at the police officers he's not yelling kill pence he's not yelling uh obscenities
but look when the man is having trouble smashing through the door your client hands him a helmet
at that point it was take the helmet and get out of here you know take the helmet
i need to get out of here if chris wanted to do damage he could have done it himself
writer faces charges including obstruction destruction of property and disorderly conduct
though prosecutor michael sherwin charged grider he agrees not everyone that day had
criminal intent we have to protect the first amendment the great majority of the people there
were protesters when do you cross that line you cross the line when you cross a police
line aggressively you throw something at a cop you hit a cop you go into a restricted area
knowing you're not supposed to be there these are the plus factors that cross that line from
a protester to a rider has the role of former president trump been part of your investigation
it's unequivocal that trump was the magnet that brought the people to dc on the sixth
now the question is is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege during
the breach what i can tell you is this based upon again what we see in the public record and what
we see in public statements in court we have plenty of people we have soccer moms from ohio
that were arrested saying well i did this because my president said i had to take back our house
that moves the needle towards that direction maybe the president is culpable for those actions but
also you see in the public record too militia members saying you know what we did this because
trump just talks a big game he's just all talk we did what he wouldn't do in short you have
investigators looking into the president's role we have people looking at everything
correct everything's being looked at but so far prosecutors have not charged sedition attempting
to overthrow the government i'm not a lawyer but the way i read the sedition statute it says
that sedition occurs when anyone opposes by force the authority of the united states or
by force hinders or delays the execution of any law of the united states seems like a very
low bar and i wonder why you're not charging that now okay so i don't think it's a low bar
or scott but i will tell you this i personally believe the evidence is trending towards that
and probably meets those elements do you anticipate sedition charges against
some of these suspects i believe the facts do support those charges uh and i think that as we
go forward more facts will support that scott this is going to be a long-term investigation
the biden administration asked michael sherwin to stay through the transition now he plans to return
to the miami u.s attorney's office what do you want people to understand about this investigation
that we try to move quickly to ensure that there is trust in the rule of law you are going
to be charged based upon your conduct and your conduct only not what you may have posted about
uh the election not what you may have posted about different political views the world looks
to us for the rule of law and order and democracy and that was shattered i think on that day and we
have to build ourselves up again the only way to build ourselves up again is the equal application
of the law to show the rule of law is going to treat these people fairly under the law