There is a “disconnect” within the Justice Department over whether Capitol rioters were trying to seize or kill lawmakers, with two federal prosecutors telling courts that evidence suggested suspects intended hostage-taking or assassination, while the Washington, D.C., prosecutor running lead said there is “no direct evidence” of “kill-capture teams” at this time.
At issue are claims made against two men — “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, spotted wearing bull horns and fur while carrying an American flag spear and wearing face paint, and retired Lt. Col. Larry Brock, dressed in a military-style helmet and vest with a military patch carrying zip-tie restraints — who have been arrested in Arizona and Texas, respectively, for their roles in storming the U.S. Capitol last week.
U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey argued in a detention memo that “strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer, meanwhile, told a judge on Thursday that Brock “means to take hostages — he means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the U.S. government,” when arguing for keeping him behind bars.
But acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin, the top prosecutor in the nation’s capital who has been handling the sprawling investigation for the Justice Department, seemed to hit the pause button on that during a Friday press call, saying that “there is no direct evidence at this point in time of kill-capture teams or assassination.”
“The cases are all being charged here in D.C., and with our law enforcement partners, and what makes this case in particular unprecedented and unusual and extremely complex is the fact that, after the event, obviously thousands of people went back to their home districts. And that has complicated things … We need to work with other districts to not only find these people but have initial appearances in districts across the United States,” Sherwin said. “There were appearances in two districts, I believe you’re making reference to, I believe Texas and Arizona, and at some of those hearings, there were other prosecutors — that may be a disconnect, that may be adding information that’s not directly related to what we have.”
Sherwin added: “In terms of complex cases, looking for these organized groups, I think I’ve stated this before, you know, we have specialized prosecutors here working with specialized counterterrorism investigators looking at these type of organizations for these most egregious acts, but right now, again, we don’t have any direct evidence of kill-capture teams.”
Bailey described last week’s storming of the Capitol as “a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government” in his Thursday memo, noting that Chansley, a purveyor of the QAnon conspiracy theory, was arrested and charged with six counts, including disorderly conduct, disrupting government functions, and illegally entering the Capitol “in an effort to prevent the Electoral College votes from being certified.” The Arizona prosecutor said that “by Chansley’s own admissions to the FBI and news media, the insurrection is still in progress and he intends to continue participating.”
Chansley disobeyed police inside the Capitol last week and entered the Senate chamber with other rioters, making his way to the dais, where Vice President Mike Pence had been, posing for pictures and writing a note to Pence, saying, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.” When Chansley called the FBI’s Washington field office the next day, he confessed and “said that … Pence is a child-trafficking traitor” but claimed he didn’t mean his note as a threat. He previously told NBC News that “the fact that we had a bunch of our traitors in office hunker down, put on their gas masks, and retreat into their underground bunker — I consider that a win.”
Weimer told Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton on Thursday that Brock, a combat veteran spotted near Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and carrying zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor, should be detained, although the judge ultimately released him to home confinement. The Texas prosecutor argued to the court that “his prior experience and training make him all the more dangerous,” though the Associated Press noted that the prosecutor “did not detail a specific plan by Brock” and that Brock’s lawyer “asked an FBI agent who was testifying whether it was possible Brock had just picked up the cuffs, and the agent acknowledged that was a possibility.”
Brock claimed in an interview with the New Yorker that he had found the zip-tie handcuffs on the ground, saying, “I wish I had not picked those up … My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one … I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them.”
The criminal complaint against Brock says that he illegally entered the Capitol to “disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions” and engaged in “disorderly or disruptive conduct” at the Capitol to “impede, disrupt, or disturb” Congress. Facebook posts cited by the DOJ show Brock mention the “Oath Keeper” and “Three-Percenter” militia-style groups on New Year’s Eve. Brock’s social media posts last Wednesday include: “Patriots storming,” “men with guns need to shoot there [sic] way in,” and “the real issue is the ruling class got a quick reminder that they are not untouchable.”
