GREENSBORO, N.C. — One year later, 2 Wants To Know is getting insight into how prosecutors are working to bring the January 6 rioters to justice in the largest federal criminal investigation in United States' history.
"It was important for us to move quickly to charge, a good number of cases to instill in the public that the rule of law worked," said Michael Sherwin, then the Justice Department's top prosecutor in DC who started the Capitol riots investigation.
“Within 10 weeks, we're talking about, I think close to 1,000 search warrants, thirteen, fifteen-hundred Grand Jury subpoenas, 350 to 400 arrest warrants. So, just a number unseen before in any probably Federal District history," he said.
"No one was given a free pass. It didn't matter if you were a speaker that day or if you were a congressman, if you were in the Executive Office, if you were the President, or if you were just one of the vendors selling popcorn that day. If your conduct fit the crime, and we had the evidence, you were charged," Sherwin said.
Since that day, prosecutors have charged six suspects from the Triad:
1. Laura Steele is a former High Point Police officer out on pre-trial release.
2. Matthew Wood is also out on Pre-Trial release after being arrested in Winston-Salem.
3. Chris Spencer, from Pilot Mountain, is also on pre-trial release after investigators say he brought his 14-year-old son into the capital during the insurrection.
4. Spencer's wife, Virginia "Jenny," pled guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building. A United States District Court judge sentenced her to three months in prison on Jan. 7, almost exactly one year after the Capitol riot.
5. Anthony Scirica also pled guilty to the same charge. The DOJ has not made a recommendation yet on how long he should serve in prison.
6. Only one of the six Triad suspects is behind bars: Charles Donohoe from Forsyth County. Investigators say he is a known member of the Proud Boys, and his charges are steeper because of that.
These six suspects are part of more than 725 defendants arrested nationwide. The vast majority were charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds.
About 40 defendants, including militia members from Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Proud Boys face more serious conspiracy charges. At least five have pled guilty.
"The great bulk of those individuals were these one-offs. They made terrible decisions. This wasn't something that was prebaked," Sherwin said. "And then, you have a sliver of cases: we'll call them militia-type cases, where there appeared to be a more collective planning."
Identifying the suspects
During the evening of January 6, as then-Vice President Mike Pence went back and certified the Electoral College, prosecutors mapped a legal strategy.
"We initially had a command post that evening at the Capitol police headquarters, where we had to set up an architecture to handle these cases to do that because there was no roadmap," Sherwin said. "We set up crews to look at body camera footage and videos to try to identify who those people were."
Prosecutors say 140 police officers were assaulted that day. To date, 75 people have been charged with that.
Members of Congress share their stories
Back on January 7, 2021, members of Congress shared their experience on January 6: