“Based on the information we received from supervisors, it sounds like things are moving together. I hope to have plea bargains for these parties soon,” U.S. Attorney Amanda Fretto said during a hearing Friday in Washington, DC. for two Texans charged in the Capitol attack.
“It could happen within a few weeks,” Fretto added, the first time a prosecutor has given a possible timeline for open court plea agreements.
There is no guilty plea, although legal experts believe that many defendants will eventually undertake an agreement instead of opting for an expensive and challenging federal trial. For those who prefer to be tried, court backlogs and the sheer logistics of the extensive investigation could likely mean court hearings could be 12 to 15 months away, people told the investigation CNN said.
‘Most complex investigation ever’
The Department of Justice calls the investigation one of the “largest in U.S. history,” and it was a drain for the department and the FBI.
“The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack is likely to be one of the largest in U.S. history, both in terms of the number of defendants being prosecuted and the nature and extent of the evidence,” Justice Department attorneys said Friday. the new documentation was written.
The attack, they say, is’ probably ‘the most complicated investigation yet prosecuted by the Justice Department’, citing the overwhelming workload for prosecutors and FBI agents.
Prosecutors have executed more than 900 warrants in almost every state.
The public continues to heed the government’s call for help in identifying suspects, which has been criticized in many cases. Authorities say they have received more than 210,000 tips and have already questioned 80,000 reports on witnesses and suspects.
Prosecutors said during court hearings this week that the DOJ is hiring an outside seller to compile a database of all the material, which includes an overwhelming number of videos of Capitol grounds.
DOJ brings in reinforcements
More than a dozen federal prosecutors from across the country have been sent to Washington to help with the effort, which is led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC.
Several prosecutors in DC have also begun moving their regular cases back, but 15 are expected to continue with the more complex conspiracy cases that could take months of work.
These conspiracy investigations continue and ‘involve a large number of participants’, the justice department said in court documents on Friday.
Many suspected Capitol rioters have already been tried and pleaded not guilty. The next step is the “discovery process” where investigators prepare evidence for trial and share it with defendants.
The Department of Justice’s request for a slowdown in some riot cases in Capitol is part of a larger battle over the discovery process.
Defense attorneys for some suspected rioters complained in court that they had not received enough material to adequately prepare for the trial or for possible plea negotiations. Prosecutors handed over some documents but told the judges more time.
Judge Trevor McFadden adjourned their next hearing for April 29, saying he hoped they could “resolve the case” by that date, citing the potential for guilty plea negotiations.