Seven months and 600+ people charged
This week, we\u2019re bringing on special guest Ryan J. Reilly, senior justice reporter at HuffPost, while Ken enjoys a deserved vacation. We\u2019ve followed and referenced Ryan\u2019s reporting on prosecutions related to the Capitol riot for the past seven months and it\u2019s time to check in. First: what does it look like for hundreds of cases to move through one federal court district in D.C.? How is the system handling the volume? And is there any method to which cases have been charged so far? Ryan explains how the insurrection has impacted the work of the Department of Justice and the FBI, both in Washington D.C. and spread out across the country. With so many ideological defendants, it\u2019s likely more of these cases will go to trial, further impacting the system.
\n\nCitizens have been sifting through the mounds of publicly available photos and videos from the riots and sending tips to federal investigators. Ryan talks about who these \u201csedition hunters\u201d are, why they\u2019re getting involved, and why sometimes they\u2019re a few steps ahead of investigators. Is their help welcome? How likely are they to potentially misidentify a suspect? Is facial recognition software taking the weight off of beleaguered prosecutors?