FBI seeks public tips on 10 most violent attackers of police in Capitol riot.
Source: Department of Justice | F.B.I.
The FBI released dramatic new videos of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as it asked the public Thursday for tips to identify 10 people suspected of involvement in some of the most violent attack on police officers that day.
“These individuals are seen on video committing egregious crimes against those who have devoted their lives to protecting the American people,” said Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
The FBI noted that hundreds of thousands of prior tips helped the agency arrest more than 300 people who participated in the mob invasion of the Capitol complex by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
More than 65 of those people have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers.
“However, some of the most violent offenders have yet to be identified, including the ten seen assaulting officers in the video footage we are releasing today,” the FBI said in a press release.
The FBI edited and enhanced the video to highlight the person they are seeking to identify.
Earlier this week, authorities arrested two men for assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after the riot, and other officers with a substance similar to bear spray.
Those men, Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of West Virginia, are not charged with killing Sicknick. The officer’s cause of death remains publicly unknown.
More than a hundred other police officers were injured in the riot, and several officers committed suicide on the heels of attacks.
“We know it can be a difficult decision to report information about family, friends, or coworkers, but it is the right thing to do and the FBI continues to need your help to identify these suspects,” D’Acunto said.
The FBI asked tipsters to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or to submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
And the agency directed the public to a web site — fbi.gov/capitolviolence — to view additional photos of the suspects being sought.
The Capitol riot began shortly after a rally by Trump supporters outside the White House, where they listened to Trump, his family members and allies call for them to help fight back against the confirmation of the election of President Joe Biden.
That same day, then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to confirm Biden’s election.
Thousands of rioters swarmed the Capitol complex after the rally, and many of them rampaged through the halls of Congress, carrying Confederate flags, smashing windows and hunting for lawmakers as they invade legislators’ office and the Senate chamber.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for inciting the riot, but acquitted after a trial in the Senate, the first time ever a president has been subject to two impeachment proceedings.
Trump since November has falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election, and that Biden’s victory was only secured by ballot fraud. Many Republicans continue to believe those claims, which have no basis in any evidence.
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