Jan. 6: the DOJ plans to arrest everybody in the zip code

Les Miserables is Victor Hugo’s morality tale of Inspector Javert and his Ahab-like pursuit of Jean Valjean. One of the great novels of all time, its message holds true in our amoral time: 

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, suggested that law enforcement will soon target those who just stood outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

During a press conference this week, Graves hinted that Americans who didn’t even go inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6 could still lead to thousands of arrests. 

“An important note when it comes to our prosecutions about those who remained outside the building. We have used our prosecutorial discretion to primarily focus on those who entered the building or those who engaged in violent or corrupt conduct on Capitol grounds,” Graves said. “But if a person knowingly entered the restricted area without authorization, they had already committed a federal crime. Make no mistake, thousands of people occupied an area that they were not authorized to be present in in the first place.”

Image: Cosette, Emile Bayard. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

Americans are increasingly coming to understand the injustice of most Jan. 6 prosecutions. Without question, the events of Jan. 6 were not remotely an insurrection. No one was armed, and even if they were and managed to seize the Capital building, the Republic would never have been in the slightest jeopardy. Indeed, a number of leftist organizations have seized government buildings and suffered nothing for it. Jan. 6 was nothing more than a spontaneous protest that got, briefly, out of hand.

There is no injustice in prosecuting anyone who assaulted a police officer, damaged or stole property or assaulted someone. However, arresting people who were given no notice they were prohibited from entering the building, were welcomed and escorted by the Capital police, never asked to leave and who merely took in the sights and took selfies, is unjust, a political abuse of power.

The D.C. district attorney has already charged more than 1,400 Americans with crimes relating to the protests on Jan. 6. He has also handed down more than 900 convictions, with almost all having prison sentences. 

On the contrary, Graves admitted that a significant portion of the 2020 George Floyd rioters were not charged at all despite causing destruction and setting cities on fire. 

Thus does Graves, and the Department Of Justice (DOJ) admit their abuse of prosecutorial power, of discretion. A significant part of that abuse is “charge stacking,” an unethical prosecutorial practice designed to punish a defendant beyond the law, and/or to force a defendant to plead to something, even if he’s not guilty, rather than face multiple charges and an out-of-proportion sentence.

For most of the Jan. 6 defendants, the only ethical charge would have been some form of misdemeanor trespassing. Even that is troublesome, because there is significant evidence signs and barriers that would have warned protestors were removed before many of them arrived. Many were never notified they weren’t welcome. Many entered the building guided, and even escorted by the Capital Police who amiably chatted with them, and in some cases actually escorted them. Many were never asked to leave. Some were, left, but were later arrested in televised SWAT raids—for a misdemeanor normally handled with a citation and small fine.

Police officers, and prosecutors, have significant discretion. Few professional police officers would arrest anyone for trespassing unless they can prove they intended to trespass and were given notice, verbally or by signage, they were not welcome. Many officers wouldn’t make such an arrest unless the trespasser was told to leave and refused. Ethical prosecutors wouldn’t file a case for the same reasons.

This daily reality across America makes the political nature of the prosecutions of more than 1000 Americans plain. And if that weren’t enough, the DOJ now intends to arrest another thousand and more for merely being present near the Capital building. Not for damaging property, assaulting anyone, not for theft, but merely for standing at some distance from the building for even a second.

The DOJ has imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants without trial for years. Their conviction rate is high because the process is the punishment. Few can afford to travel repeatedly to DC, hiring a lawyer at $300 and more an hour to fight misdemeanor charges, or even charges stacked beyond credibility. To add insult to injury, many DC judges have imposed fines and sentences far in excess of those common and usual for such minor offenses, which further exposes the political nature of Jan. 6 prosecutions.

Considering Joe Biden, at his Valley Forge speech, invoked “insurrectionists” or “insurrection” some 11 times, presaging his campaign strategy, one might be forgiven for thinking the DOJ little more than a Stasi-like arm of his reelection campaign. 

It’s a story that would have been familiar to Victor Hugo.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.