At least 400 people are expected to be charged with crimes in connection with the Capitol Hill riots that took place on January 6th, according to court officials and federal prosecutors.
“The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement, as the Washinton Post reports.
According to the report, the complex investigation includes watching tens of thousands of hours of collective footage, identifying the individuals involved, and tracking them down for formal prosecutions.
The process is intentionally slow, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn L. Rakoczy explained to the outlet, as it is “impossible or [could] result in a miscarriage of justice” if expedited.
But, the Washington Post reports federal judges want investigators and prosecutors to speed up the process.
From the report:
U.S. prosecutors on Friday sketched out the gargantuan scope of the investigation in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, asking for courts to delay most cases by at least two months after being pressed by a handful of defendants and some judges to speed up trials and plea offers.
Charges have been brought against 312 people and are expected against at least 100 more, according to court officials and prosecutors.
Investigators have executed more than 900 electronic and physical search warrants, and amassed more than 15,000 hours of law enforcement surveillance and body-camera video, 1,600 electronic devices and 210,000 tips, prosecutors said.
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The legal team handling the flux of prosecutions is vast and is sometimes requiring its members to handle several cases at once.
“More than 100 federal prosecutors are working full or part-time on cases — including 30 detailed from U.S. attorney offices around the country — with some prosecutors and judges handling seven cases or more apiece,” the report adds.
On the other side of the judicial process, public defenders have also been forced to pick up much more additional work:
The Office of the Federal Public Defender in D.C. has nine attorneys working multiple Capitol cases, along with many more court-appointed or privately retained counsel.
The court’s three magistrates and five detailees have handed seven times the workload of new criminal presentments compared with the same period last year, court officials said. They approved more than 400 electronic warrants around-the-clock over three weeks in February, records show.