January 6th Insurrection Case Called ‘Most Complex’ in History

We are just 2 months and some change removed from the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol back on January 6th, and a number of law enforcement agencies are working in tandem to bring cases against all those who’ve been identified as being involved.

This is an enormous undertaking, with thousands of hours of social media and news footage to comb through, as well as hundreds of leads to investigate.

This is why some prosecutors in these cases are warning against the breakneck pace of the proceedings.

Federal prosecutors have begun seeking 60-day delays across a series of Capitol riot cases, calling the probe “likely the most complex investigation ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”

In a nine-page filing lodged in multiple cases Friday morning, U.S. attorneys handling cases stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection cited the rapidly growing roster of defendants and the enormous cache of evidence they must sift through to get a complete picture of the crimes committed that day.

The mountain of evidence was incredibly dense.

“The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history,” prosecutors said, “both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence.”

That evidence, they said, includes findings of more than 900 search warrants executed in nearly every state. It also includes more than 15,000 hours of surveillance and body-worn camera footage supplied by some of the 14 federal and local law enforcement agencies that participated in the Capitol response — from the FBI to the Secret Service to the Arlington, Va., police department.

Authorities are also combing through 1,600 electronic devices, conducting hundreds of searches of text messages from multiple providers, and reviewing 210,000 tips and 80,000 witness interviews.

Several of the more notable suspects in the incident have already been before judges, and the results have been less than ideal for the would-be insurrectionists.