Name: Inside the campaign to punish January 6 prosecutors
Uploaded: 2025-12-17T18:15:11.281Z
Duration: 6 min 6 s
Description: After Trump’s mass pardon of U.S. Capitol rioters, some have gained influence inside the Justice Department, meeting with officials to push for prosecutions of the federal lawyers who once helped convict them, Reuters found. The January 6 prosecutors describe mounting threats, harassment and fear of lasting damage to the U.S. justice system.

After Trump’s mass pardon of U.S. Capitol rioters, some have gained influence inside the Justice Department, meeting with officials to push for prosecutions of the federal lawyers who once helped convict them, Reuters found. The January 6 prosecutors describe mounting threats, harassment and fear of lasting damage to the U.S. justice system.

Washington

A Reuters investigation has found that several pardoned January 6 rioters are gaining influence within the U.S. Department of Justice and have met with officials to discuss strategies for pursuing legal action against the prosecutors who handled their cases. The report highlights the formation of a DOJ task force led by a Trump loyalist, which is drafting a report re-examining the Capitol attack, and notes that some DOJ lawyers fear this could lead to allegations of wrongdoing against prosecutors.

The investigation, based on interviews with prosecutors, defendants, and a review of official documents, also details efforts by former rioters to seek compensation and advocate for others charged in connection with the Capitol breach. Prosecutors maintain that their actions were justified by extensive evidence, while some former rioters continue to dispute the official account and seek to rewrite the narrative surrounding the events of January 6.

Inside the campaign to punish January 6 prosecutors

We were not there to cause an insurrection. An insurrection is taking over the government by illegal means. That's what happened with the 2020 election. The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters in 2021 was the closest the country has come to a violent disruption of the peaceful transfer of power since the Civil War. And strongly opposing views of what happened that day still linger. Now Reuters has discovered that pardoned January 6 rioters are gaining influence inside the Justice Department. And some have been meeting with DOJ officials to help strategize how to pursue the very prosecutors who worked to put them behind bars. Many J6 rioters claim the official account of the Capitol siege was fabricated and are intent on rewriting it. My name is Chris Quaglin. I'm just a concerned citizen. People call me a patriot. Quaglin was convicted of attacking police officers and pepper spraying one in the face as he forced his way into the Capitol on January 6. I never once curled up my fist and swung a fist. Never once. Did I push a couple officers? Yes. OK. I had multiple concussions at that point. Quaglin owns J6 flags, T-shirts and a wooden plaque with the names of nearly all fellow pardoned rioters. He's calling for reprisals against those who prosecuted him. No one expected 12 years in prison. President Donald Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people charged in the Capitol assault, including Quaglin, and has defended them as great American patriots. Quaglin has filed a formal request with the DOJ seeking $150 million for what he says were violations of his civil rights. We shouldn't have gotten anything but a misdemeanor charge and a $50 fine. Prosecutors disagree and have defended their prosecutions, pointing to extensive video evidence from the day of the attack of widespread violence. For this story, we spoke to 26 Capitol riot prosecutors, 13 defendants, and reviewed government documents, court records, Trump administration directives and social media posts. And we found that inside the DOJ, a weaponization task force led by Trump loyalist Ed Martin, a former defense lawyer for J6 rioters, is drafting a report re-examining the Capitol attack. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that a J6 report is being drafted. Martin declined to comment. When asked about the weaponization group, a White House spokesperson said Trump had campaigned on a pledge to restore integrity to the Justice Department and is keeping that promise. Half a dozen DOJ lawyers told Reuters they're concerned Martin's investigators could allege widespread wrongdoing by J6 prosecutors and create a pretext for taking legal action against them. Fearing backlash, most of them spoke to Reuters on the condition they not be identified. The prosecutions weren't unethical. History will bear us out on that. I have no question at all. Matthew Beckwith, who worked on J6 cases, said he was fired by Martin this January. Rioters posted a list of prosecutors' names on X, including Beckwith's, alongside calls for them to be fired or jailed. One user replied with a photo of a noose. I'm under no illusion that anyone needs to like their prosecutor. That's a very natural thing for a defendant to not like their prosecutor, to not like what's happening to them. I understand that. For that to suddenly be coming from inside the Department of Justice, for this extraordinary example of political violence to be normalized and legitimated, that was what was most shocking to me. Trenas Evans, a pardoned rioter and co-host of the right-wing show The Case for America, told Reuters he has met with DOJ officials to discuss J6. He says rioters were victims of a, quote, weaponized legal system. I want perp walks. In 2022, Evans pleaded guilty to unlawfully entering the Capitol. Court records say he used his megaphone to beckon rioters inside. And he downed a shot of fireball whiskey in a congressional conference room, according to a government sentencing memo. I will apologize for drinking my poor choice of cheap whiskey, cinnamon whiskey, fireball. And I will apologize for my off-key, off-tone, horrific rendition of the national anthem. But I'll still sing it proudly anywhere and anytime I damn well please. Evans has founded an organization called Condemned USA, an advocacy group for January 6th defendants, many of whom say they want to right the wrongs done to them. My anger, I wouldn't call it hatred, but anger stems from everything that happened to me for four years. Quaglin, who has boxes and boxes of court documents and grievances from jail, casts J6 prosecutors as conspirators in a plot to entrap rioters. But for the lawyers who dug deep into what happened on that violent and pivotal day in modern American history, the truth came to light. Rioters were jailed. And now the rule of law is on the line.

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