Howey: Believe your own eyes on the Jan. 6 insurrection

U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz kicked off the Indiana Republican exodus from Congress about a year ago, and this first week of 2024 she has been joined by Greg Pence and Larry Bucshon in heading for the exits. It comes as the legal and political fallout from the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection continues.

Rep. Pence and his brother, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife and daughter, escaped the mob with just seconds to spare. The insurrectionists had been chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Spartz had a jaw-dropping take on the events of that day during a House hearing this past week. "If the January 6 insurrectionists wanted to do an insurrection they would have succeeded," Spartz said. "They were expressing themselves peacefully. It is un-American to call them insurrectionists, they are good Americans."

I, along with millions of Americans, watched in real time what happened that day. The whole world was watching. We have seen the replays. A mob was inspired by President Trump to march on the Capitol, citing claims of massive election fraud that didn't exist.

"We won in a landslide," Trump told his supporters on the Ellipse. "This the most corrupt election in the history, maybe of the world. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

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While Trump faces 91 criminal charges - the first former president ever to be indicted - four of them are connected to the Jan. 6 riot, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction, and conspiracy against rights.

"Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power," the indictment read. "So for more than two months following election day on Nov. 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false."

According to the Department of Justice's District of Columbia office this week, here are statistics on what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6:

• More than 950 defendants have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (This includes those charged in both District and Superior Court).

• More than 284 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 99 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. It is one of the largest mass casualty events involving police in U.S. history.

• Approximately 860 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds. Of those, 91 defendants have been charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.

• Approximately 59 defendants have been charged with destruction of government property, and approximately 36 defendants have been charged with theft of government property.

• More than 295 defendants have been charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding (the Electoral College certification process presided over by Vice President Mike Pence), or attempting to do so.

• Approximately 50 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, either: (a) conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, (b) conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, (c) conspiracy to injure an officer, (d) seditious conspiracy, or some combination of the four.

• Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.

• According to Factcheck.org, five police officers died as the result of the U.S. Capitol assault. A Capitol Police release the day after the riots said that USCP Officer Brian Sicknick “passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” Four other police officers committed suicide in the days and months after the riot.

• Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego and an Air Force veteran, died on the day of the riot after being shot in the shoulder by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to force her way into the House chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place, Factcheck.org reported.

• Damage to the Capitol totaled $2.7 million.

• Approximately 484 individuals have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges and 119 have pleaded guilty to felonies. Another 364 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

• A total of 52 of those have pleaded to federal charges of assaulting law enforcement officers. An additional 22 individuals have pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder. Of these 74 defendants, 41 have now been sentenced to prison terms of up to 90 months. Four of those who have pleaded guilty to felonies have pleaded guilty to the federal charge of seditious conspiracy.

Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, are now calling Jan. 6 defendants and convicts as "hostages."

"They ought to release the J6 hostages. They’ve suffered," Trump said last weekend. “Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages."

Stefanik, who is the No. 4 member of House GOP leadership, echoed Trump's words on "Meet the Press" Sunday, saying, "I have concerns about the treatment of Jan. 6 hostages." On Jan. 6, 2021, Stefanik told NBC News that the rioters should be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law."

I saw what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, in real time. So did you. Believe your eyes. The whole world was watching. We still are.

Brian Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Howey: Believe your own eyes on the Jan. 6 insurrection