在时任总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的一群支持者围攻美国国会大厦两年后，司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)在一份声明中表示，司法部起诉1月6日暴动责任人的努力“远未结束”
“我们仍然致力于确保追究那些对1月6日袭击我们民主负有刑事责任的人的责任，”加兰在本周纪念1月6日两周年的一份声明中说。“我们仍然致力于尽我们所能防止这种情况再次发生。”
在数千名特朗普的支持者冲进国会大厅后的几个小时内，司法部启动了有史以来规模最大、最复杂的刑事调查。
根据美国广播公司新闻对法庭记录的分析，超过950人面临与袭击有关的指控，其中一半以上已经认罪。
在暴徒试图在审判中抗争到底的情况下，检察官也取得了巨大的成功。
根据司法部的说法，至少有40人在一系列联邦指控的审判中被判有罪，11月，检察官在近30年来第一次成功地将陪审团对誓言守卫者领导人斯图尔特·罗兹(Stewart Rhodes)和另一名同伙的煽动阴谋指控定罪。司法部预计将于下周开始在另一场针对极右翼极端组织“骄傲的男孩”领导人的煽动性阴谋审判中提交证据。
根据司法部的数据，在1月6日被判刑的350多名暴徒中，有近200人面临牢狱之灾，那些参与了一些最暴力的执法袭击的人的刑期最高可达10年。
联邦调查局正在继续寻找350多名被认为在国会大厦参与暴力活动的其他人的身份线索，其中包括250多名袭击警察的人。
加兰是在1月6日上午由拜登提名的，就在国会大厦遭到袭击的几个小时前，他一再为司法部的调查辩护，因为有人批评检察官似乎更专注于将1月6日参与国会大厦骚乱的所谓“步兵”绳之以法，而不是那些传播关于2020年大选的谎言并在幕后阻止特朗普失败的人。
最近几个月，随着1月6日众议院特别委员会(House select committee)举行公开听证会并公布证据，这种压力有增无减总结报告以及对特朗普和至少一个顶级盟友约翰·伊斯曼的刑事起诉。
特朗普在2022年中期选举后几天决定宣布参选2024年总统候选人，这促使司法部长加兰任命一名特别顾问杰克·史密斯，负责调查特朗普及其盟友是否参与了任何非法活动，以保住权力。
作为任命的一部分，加兰正式将史密斯的工作与联邦调查局和华盛顿美国检察官办公室的日常调查分开，这些调查旨在查明和起诉所有在1月6日在国会大厦从事非法活动的人，国会大厦仍然几乎每天都对新嫌疑人提出指控。
加兰的预约订单还责成史密斯监督另一项刑事调查，调查特朗普在离任后是否非法不当处理机密文件，并阻挠政府收回这些文件的努力。
史密斯是DOJ的资深人士，在被任命为海牙调查战争罪的最高检察官时，他现在将承担向加兰提出建议的最终责任，即特朗普或处于这两项调查中心的其他人是否应该因他们的行为而面临指控。
在最近接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时，加兰的高级副手丽莎·莫纳科说，缺席的情况“非常超出正常程序”，史密斯关于特朗普的建议“将是站得住脚的”。
在DOJ调查特朗普试图推翻2020年大选的案件中，史密斯控制了一项调查，从许多方面来看，这项调查似乎已经进入了高级阶段。
今年夏天，调查人员搜查了前DOJ高级官员杰弗里·克拉克的家，并获得了搜查伊士曼手机的搜查令，两人都否认有任何不当行为。已经向与推翻选举的努力有关的个人发出了数十份大陪审团传票，许多人专门寻求有关特朗普的行动或参与在拜登获胜的州提出虚假选举人名单的计划的信息。
检察官还在法庭上努力迫使特朗普白宫的前高级官员作证，包括特朗普的前律师帕特·西波尔隆(Pat Cipollone)和与前副总统迈克·彭斯关系密切的官员。
史密斯因自行车事故在海外接受膝盖手术后，于近日返回华盛顿，他在任命后的唯一一份公开声明中承诺，这两项调查的步伐将“不会在我的监督下暂停或减弱。”
2 years after Jan. 6, DOJ faces questions on accountability for Trump, other top figures
Two years after a mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the Justice Department's efforts to prosecute those responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection remains "far from over."
"We remain committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for the January 6 assault on our democracy," Garland said in a statement this week marking the two-year anniversary of Jan. 6. "And we remain committed to doing everything in our power to prevent this from ever happening again."
Within hours after thousands of Trump's supporters stormed through the halls of Congress, the Justice Department launched what would become the largest and most complex criminal investigation in its history.
More than 950 individuals have faced charges in connection with the attack, according to an ABC News analysis of court records, more than half of whom have pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors have also had resounding success in instances where rioters have sought to fight out their case at trial.
According to the Justice Department, at least 40 individuals have been found guilty at trial on an array of federal charges, and in November prosecutors secured the first successful jury convictions on seditious conspiracy charges in nearly 30 years against the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and another associate. The Justice Department is expected to begin presenting evidence in yet another seditious conspiracy trial against leaders of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys next week.
Nearly 200 of the more than 350 rioters who have been sentenced for their crimes on Jan. 6 have faced time behind bars, according to the Justice Department, with sentences ranging as high as 10 years for those who engaged in some of the most violent assaults against law enforcement.
The FBI is continuing to seek tips on the identities of more than 350 others believed to have engaged in violent activity at the Capitol, including more than 250 who assaulted police.
Garland, who was nominated by Biden on the morning of Jan. 6, just hours before the Capitol was attacked, has repeatedly defended the department's investigation amid criticism that prosecutors appeared more focused on bringing justice to the so-called "foot soldiers" of Jan. 6 who participated in the Capitol riot instead of those who propagated the lies about the 2020 election and worked behind the scenes to thwart Trump's loss.
That pressure only grew in recent months with public hearings and evidence released by the Jan. 6 House select committee, which formally shuttered over the weekend after issuing its final report and criminal referrals for Trump and at least one top ally, John Eastman.
Trump's decision in the days after the 2022 midterms to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential ticket prompted Attorney General Garland to appoint a special counsel, Jack Smith, to assume responsibility over the investigation of whether Trump and his allies engaged in any illegal activity in their bid to cling to power.
As part of the appointment, Garland formally separated Smith's work from the day-to-day investigation being run by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. seeking to identify and prosecute all those who engaged in unlawful activity at Capitol on Jan. 6, which is still returning charges against new suspects on a near-daily basis.
Garland's appointment order also tasked Smith with overseeing a separate criminal probe into whether Trump illegally mishandled classified documents after leaving office and obstructed the government's attempts to recover them.
Smith, a longtime DOJ veteran who at the time of his appointment was a top prosecutor investigating war crimes at the Hague, will now have the ultimate responsibility of recommending to Garland whether Trump or others at the center of the two investigations should face charges as a result of their conduct.
In a recent interview with CBS News, Garland's top deputy Lisa Monaco said that absent circumstances "extraordinarily outside the normal process," Smith's recommendations regarding Trump "will be the ones that stand."
In the case of DOJ's inquiry into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Smith assumed control of an investigation that, in many ways, appeared to already be in its advanced stages.
Over the summer, investigators searched the home of former top DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and secured a warrant to search Eastman's cell phone, both of whom have denied any wrongdoing. Scores of grand jury subpoenas have been issued to individuals tied to the effort to overturn the election, with many seeking information specifically on Trump's actions or involvement in the scheme to put forward false slates of electors in states won by Biden.
Prosecutors have also battled in court to compel testimony from former high-ranking officials in Trump's White House, including his former counsel Pat Cipollone and officials close to former Vice President Mike Pence.
Smith, who returned to Washington in recent days after undergoing knee surgery overseas from a bike accident, pledged in his only public statement following his appointment that the pace of both investigations will "not pause or flag under my watch."
