Evidence that federal investigators have collected during their criminal probe into the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol could result in sedition charges, the federal prosecutor who is leading the investigation said in a recent interview.
“I personally believe the evidence is trending toward that, and probably meets those elements,” Sherwin said. “I believe the facts do support those charges. And I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that.”
Sherwin said of those 400 defendants, more than 80 percent of the individuals were charged with trespassing on the U.S. Capitol, while about 100 individuals have been charged with assaulting federal and local police officers.
He said he witnessed the breach as it was unfolding. He had dressed in running clothes and joined the crowd at then-President Donald Trump’s rally that day to “gauge the temperature of the crowd.”
“It was like a carnival environment. People were selling shirts, popcorn, cotton candy, I saw hot dogs. As the morning progressed, I noticed though there were some people that weren’t the typical, carnival-type people. I noticed there were some people in tactical gear. They were tacked up with Kevlar vests. They had the military helmets on. Those individuals, I noticed, left the speeches early,” he said.
Sherwin followed those individuals and began noticing they were “getting more riled up.”
“Where it was initially pro-Trump, it digressed to anti-government, anti-Congress, anti-institutional. And then I eventually saw people climbing the scaffolding. The scaffolding was being set up for the inauguration. When I saw people climbing up the scaffolding, hanging from it, hanging flags, I was like, ‘This is going bad fast,’” he said.
He said federal investigators are probing every aspect of the breach, including whether Trump had a role in the incident.
