Federal Prosecutors Have Not Ruled Out Charging Trump With Inciting the Violent Mob –

U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin

By Glynn Wilson –

The acting U.S. attorney leading the investigation into those involved in the January 6 Capitol insurrection appeared on CBS’s “Sixty Minutes” on Sunday and admitted that prosecutors are looking into former President Donald Trump’s role in inciting the violent riot, that some of the conspirators who planned the attack in advance could ultimately be charged with sedition to overthrow the government, and some could be charged with murder for the death of a Capitol Police officer.

Michael R. Sherwin, a federal prosecutor from Miami held over in the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Department of Justice by the Biden administration to continue the investigation, talked about witnessing the rally and riot in person while out for a jog.

As attorneys often are in interviews, Sherwin did not come right out and say Trump would be charged, or that some members of right-wing militia groups would be charged with sedition. But when pressed by Scott Pelley, he said the prosecution team is looking at the evidence and have not ruled that out.

Sherwin restated claims he made shortly after the attack that prosecutors were examining the conduct of the former president, who urged his supporters to attend the rally and fired them up with baseless claims of a stolen election to “fight like hell.”

“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to D.C. on the 6th. Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?” Sherwin said. “We have people looking at everything.”

He also admitted under questioning that evidence the government obtained most likely meets the legal bar necessary to charge some of the suspects with sedition.

“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.”

The last time federal prosecutors brought a sedition case came in 2010, according to reporting by the New York Times, when members of a Michigan militia were accused of plotting to provoke an armed conflict with the government. They were ultimately acquitted, however, when the judge in the case said the Justice Department had not adequately proved that the defendants had entered a “concrete agreement to forcibly oppose the United States government.”

The federal statute on seditious conspiracy says that people who conspire to “oppose by force the authority” of the government or use force “to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States” can be charged with sedition.

Graydon Young, 54, of Englewood, Florida, at the Capitol insurrection Jan. 6: Google images

So far, some defendants have been charged with conspiring to derail the final Electoral College certification by Congress of President Joe Biden’s victory along with trespassing, destruction of property and other charges, some serious felonies.

Sherwin, who stepped down from leading the investigation on Friday and returned to Miami, described his eye-witness account of the rally and riot during the interview. At first it was like a “carnival atmosphere” with people selling T-shirts, popcorn and cotton candy, he said. Then he noticed that “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.”

“Where it was initially pro-Trump, it digressed to anti-government, anti-Congress, anti-institutional,” he continued. “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’.”

More than 400 participants in the insurrection have already been charged, he said, including more than 100 who are accused of assaulting Capitol and DC Metro police officers. That includes Brian D. Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died after being attacked and sprayed with bear spray by insurrectionists.

While a medical examiner has not yet determined how Sicknick died, Sherwin said if facts support it some suspects already charged with assaulting a police officer could be charged with murder.

“If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death,” Sherwin said, “in that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case.”

In the interview, Sherwin said only about 10 percent of the cases so far include conspiracy charges on the part of members of right-wing extremist groups, including members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

Related: Capitol Insurrection Investigation