Garland says Justice Department won’t avoid ‘controversial’ Jan 6 cases

Comments come as Justice Department has pursued ‘seditious conspiracy’ charges against ringleaders

US Attorney General Merrick Garland gave some of his most wide-ranging comments yet about the January 6 investigation in an interview with NPR, telling the news organisation that his agency would not shy away from tough prosecutions based on political decisions.

Mr Garland is seen as a lionising figure among some liberals in the US after he was appointed to the Justice Department following his unsuccessful nomination to the Supreme Court in the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency. He now heads up one of the largest investigations in the agency’s history that has already led to hundreds of prosecutions and shows no sign of slowing down.

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In an interview published on Thursday in concert with the one-year anniversary of his appointment to the agency, Mr Garland told NPR reporters that his agency would hold “everyone accountable” who participated in the January 6 attack on Congress. His remarks appeared to make a clear distinction between those who committed what he referred to as “overt acts” during the attack itself and others who may have had roles in the background planning or organising the riot.

"We begin with the cases that are right in front of us with the overt actions and then we build from there," he told the news organisation. "And that is a process that we will continue to build until we hold everyone accountable who committed criminal acts with respect to January 6."

Mr Garland added that the agency was “not avoiding cases that are political or cases that are controversial or sensitive”.

"What we are avoiding is making decisions on a political basis, on a partisan basis,” he said.

Under Mr Garland’s leadership about 800 people have been charged in relation to the attack so far, with that number changing nearly every week. In recent days the agency made one of its most high-profile moves yet and charged a founder of the right-wing Proud Boys group with conspiring to organise other members of his group to participate in the attack.

Significant resources continue to be devoted to the investigation more than a year after the attack itself. The FBI’s Washington field office remains at work identifying individual participants in the riot through camera footage and photos taken during the attack, and the Justice Department itself has set up a searchable database listing individuals charged in the attack so far.

Mr Garland told NPR in his interview that the Washington field office was working closely with other field offices around the country and characterised the investigation as a “24-7” effort.

"Every FBI office, almost every US attorney's office in the country is working on this matter. We've issued thousands of subpoenas, seized and examined thousands of electronic devices, examined terabytes of data, thousands of hours of videos. People are working every day, 24-7, and are fully aware of how important this is,” he said.

Last week his investigation saw another high-profile victory when a member of the far-right Oathkeepers militia became the first individual to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy charges stemming from the attack.