One year after the invasion of the Capitol by hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump, where is the investigation?

A year ago, when a crowd of angry protesters broke into the Capitol compound to interrupt Joe Biden’s certification for the election, US security officials saw nothing coming. . This type of threat was too outside the usual thought patterns of law enforcement, to activate a coherent reaction with the information, which however was circulating.

The demonstrators were overwhelmingly white and from the middle classes, and did not resemble the profiles police are trained to face. A year later, a monumental investigation, still in progress, made it possible to arrest a large number of the intruders of the Capitol, and especially to better understand who they are.

This gigantic work of a host of federal agents, who scoured networks and analyzed thousands of videos shot on the day of the Capitol invasion, would be “one of the biggest investigations in FBI history”, according to Lorenzo Vidino, director of the “Program on Extremism”, which compiles all the data of the prosecutions. 725 people have already been arrested and charged and the list is growing continuously: if the authorities had initially estimated at 800 the demonstrators who were actually guilty of offenses, it now counts more than 2000.

The accused are overwhelmingly white men (87%), their average age is 39 years, “higher than the usual age of extremists”, according to Lorenzo Vidino. They come from all parts of the country, without a clear predominance, and belong to various socio-professional categories. However, the data shows an over-representation, among them, of former soldiers and professionals who have experienced bankruptcy. Their level of commitment is also very variable: in the mob on Capitol Hill, ordinary supporters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again”, convinced of the reality of his victory, rubbed shoulders with seasoned far-right activists, and convinced conspirators.

The seriousness of the offenses and the level of penalties incurred are also very unequal. The majority of the defendants simply wandered the corridors of the Capitol, while others were guilty of serious violence. 165 people have already entered into plea-guilty agreements (which prevent a trial in the United States), and the sentences handed down so far have been light. Thus this young man, who had recognized a theft of beer in the office of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, was sentenced to 20 days in prison, which he will serve on his weekends so as not to lose his job.

Emblematic figure of the Capitol invasion, where he was shirtless and wearing buffalo horns, Jacob Chansley was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. But the heaviest penalties are just starting to fall. The actors of other scenes of violence, spotted on the countless videos analyzed by the FBI, are accused of serious crimes, in particular committed against the police. A man has just been sentenced to 5 years in prison for having thrown boards and a fire extinguisher at the police.

To yet another degree, around 40 people are being prosecuted for “criminal conspiracy”, which involves planning the attack. This charge, the heaviest at this stage of the investigation, mainly targets members of extreme right-wing groups. “Sedition or” insurgency “prosecutions are harder to prove and so far unsuccessful by prosecutors. US law makes their job complicated: Investigators can track down foreign extremist groups, but not American organizations, even if their ideology is radical and violent.

There is still a higher floor to this investigation, but which for the time being does not fall under the Department of Justice: that on those who were not present at the Capitol, but would have incited his assault, or even would have orchestrated it. . A commission of inquiry has been created in the House of Representatives to shed light on the role of former President Donald Trump and his relatives. If it manages to compile evidence, nothing will prevent prosecutors from seizing it.

On the eve of the commemoration of the assault on the Capitol, the US Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland has rightly committed “to bring to justice all the assailants of January 6, whatever their status – whether they were present that day, or whether they are criminally responsible for the attack on our democracy”.