Matthew Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the third anniversary of the January 6th U.S. Capitol protests.
“It’s been three years since a violent mob attacked our Capitol,” Graves said.
According to C-SPAN, Graves “spoke on the progress of the investigations” and he requested “the public’s continued assistance in identifying individuals who committed crimes on January 6th.”
In other words, the Department of Justice will continue its persecution of J6 protestors three years later.
Graves said during the press conference they would expand their search to individuals who stood outside the U.S. Capitol and never entered the building.
“An important note when it comes to our prosecutions of those who remained outside the [Capitol] building. We have used our prosecutorial discretion to primarily focus on those who entered the building or those who engaged in violent or corrupt conduct on Capitol grounds,” Graves said.
“But, if a person knowingly entered the restricted area without authorization, they had already committed a federal crime. Make no mistake. Thousands of people occupied an area they were not authorized to be present in the first place,” he added.
DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves is making clear that the DOJ is now going to target Americans who were around the Capitol on J6 but did not enter the building pic.twitter.com/bj4i3QfHe9
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) January 6, 2024
They are going to prosecute innocent people that didn’t even go in the Capitol,who had no idea about any lines they crossed on Capitol grounds that the American taxpayers pay for, while not prosecuting over 60% of daily crime in DC.
These are the “defenders” of democracy.
If only… https://t.co/U0MstaIV9O— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 7, 2024
“He’s talking about the public lawn of the Capitol. This is how insane these people are,” Jack Posobiec commented.
“I warned this was coming. My case was precedent setting. Make no mistake, the message here is: If you’re a Trump supporter, or any right wing anti-establishment candidate, you have no 1st Amendment rights. You will be charged & incarcerated for speaking, reporting or protesting,” Owen Shroyer said.
