‘CRIMINALS’

Justice Department to GOP: Lionize Jan. 6 Rioters at the Country’s Peril

The warning is the strongest yet to Republican lawmakers who have sought to downplay or praise the rioters’ actions.

The Justice Department is warning that any “lionizing” of the Jan. 6 rioters risks inciting future political violence. In a Monday court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Romano wrote that chances of violence and instability to come are being “fueled by a segment of the population that seems intent on lionizing the January 6 rioters and treating them as political prisoners, heroes, or martyrs instead of what they are: criminals, many of whom committed extremely serious crimes of violence, and all of whom attacked the democratic values which all of us should share.”

Romano’s statement was folded into a 28-page document endorsing the pretrial detention of a Jan. 6 defendant charged with destruction of property and assaulting Capitol police. It is the department’s most palpable—if indirect—hit yet on Republican lawmakers who have sought to downplay or commend the actions of those who assaulted the Capitol.

Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Madison Cawthorn, among other House republicans, have openly supported the Jan. 6 defendants, arguing that they are “political prisoners” being discriminated against for their beliefs. Their baseless assertions echo the repeated declarations of former President Donald Trump, who continues to sing the praises of “the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest,” as he put it in a recent statement.