Jan. 6 riot prosecutions: Three questions

Two years after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department has shifted its legal pursuit of riot participants to a new, more intensive level.

Federal prosecutors have not yet given any indication of when, or if, they will charge former President Donald Trump and top aides in connection with the attack. Most of the charges brought against the 950 or so defendants, at least the nonviolent ones, have been for minor offenses such as entering a restricted building or illegally demonstrating in the Capitol.

But in November Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group, and one of his subordinates were convicted of seditious conspiracy. It was the first time a jury had found that group planning was involved in the disruption of the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes.

Now the Justice Department is beginning