As US marked the third anniversary of the violent attack by Donald Trump’s supporters, the country’s authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of three people wanted in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
Jonathan Pollock, Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson were arrested early Saturday at a ranch in the southern US state of Florida, the FBI said in a statement.
They will appear Monday in federal court in the central city of Ocala for multiple charges, including assaulting and resisting civil servants as well as disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
The FBI had offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, a 24-year-old welder “considered armed and dangerous.”
Read also
An earlier Justice Department statement said Pollock had assaulted several police officers, pulling one down a set of steps, kneeing another and punching a third in the neck.
It said Hutchinson had also punched and kicked several officers, and that Olivia Pollock — Jonathan Pollock’s sister, according to local media — had elbowed an officer and tried to grab a baton from another.
Nearly 1,300 people have so far been charged in relation to the Capitol riot, which prosecutors have called an insurrection aimed at keeping Trump in the White House.
Most of them face charges of illegally entering the Capitol or causing property damage, but some 350 have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers or resisting arrest.
Others, including members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been convicted of the more serious charge of seditious conspiracy.
Already, Trump, who is seeking a second term in the Oval Office, himself is facing felony charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his role in the January 6, 2021 assault.
Trump has never acknowledged his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and vigorously denies having incited his supporters to attack the seat of the US Congress.
In February, the Supreme Court will hear a case on whether Trump is eligible to seek election to a second term, given his alleged role in the assault. For the moment, he is the runaway leader in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
According to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll released this week, 39 percent of Americans believe the assault on the Capitol was the result of a plot hatched by the FBI.
Meanwhile, the former President Donald Trump defended his conduct during the US Capitol assault in an incendiary interview published Thursday, saying he did not regret summoning his rioting supporters to Washington.
He told The Washington Post he would have accompanied his ultra-loyal followers as they marched on the complex on January 6 last year, but was stopped by his security detail.
The ex-President offered no contrition for whipping up the crowd with bogus claims that victory was stolen from him through widespread fraud — although he was clear in his condemnation of the violence that ensued.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” he said, in the wide-ranging interview, adding that it was the largest crowd he had ever spoken to.
Thousands of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol last year in an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power after Joe Biden won a decisive victory in 2020, described by the government as one of the most secure elections in US history.
Trump repeatedly boasted about the “tremendous” size of the crowd at his rally ahead of the riot and glossed over his explosive rhetoric that whipped up the crowd.
“I don’t know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They don’t want to show pictures, the fake news doesn’t want to show pictures,” he said.
The ex-president defended his long silence during the attack, deflecting blame to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, even though she isn’t responsible for policing at the Capitol and was a target of the mob herself.
He also pointed a finger at Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who “furiously tried to reach Trump’s team that day,” according to the Post.
“I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’ and I assumed they were taking care of it,” Trump said of the violence, which has been linked to at least five deaths.
The interview came after the House of Representatives voted to refer ex-Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino for criminal contempt charges on Wednesday for defying congressional subpoenas to testify about the riot.
AFP
