US Attorney Says Prosecutors Turning Down Some Jan. 6 Cases

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,500 people in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. They could have brought charges in hundreds of other cases but decided not to, the top U.S. prosecutor in Washington has said.

Career prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice established guidelines shortly after the breach regarding when to bring charges, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves told CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview that aired on Sept. 15. Prosecutors have generally focused on people who entered the Capitol, helped others enter the building, committed violence, or illegally carried weapons on Capitol grounds.

The cases presented to prosecutors and turned down “don’t fit within the guidelines that the career prosecutors had been using, or we don’t think that there’s sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Graves said. “We have turned down hundreds of cases where the FBI is saying, ‘There is evidence here, it’s your determination, prosecutors, whether you think this should be prosecuted.’”

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