Justice Department Removes News Releases on Jan. 6 Prosecutions From Website: ‘Partisan Propaganda’
The Justice Department has removed hundreds of news releases related to criminal prosecutions connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol from its website, it confirmed, characterizing the records as “partisan propaganda.”
The deletions include press releases documenting criminal charges, guilty pleas, convictions, and sentencing tied to the Jan. 6 attack, which saw supporters of President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
After a journalist noted on X last week that the Justice Department appeared to be “quietly” deleting the releases, the department’s rapid response account publicly confirmed over the weekend that they had been scrubbed from its website—but stated that there was “nothing ‘quiet’ about it.”
“We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration,” the department wrote. “We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.”
The post comes days after the Justice Department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate people who allege they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted by the government, as President Donald Trump and his Administration had repeatedly claimed Trump and his allies were during Biden’s presidency, as part of a deal to settle the President’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
Top Administration officials have declined to rule out people convicted in connection with Jan. 6 receiving compensation through the fund, prompting criticism from lawmakers in both parties.
Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, wrote in a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that “the notion of the federal government doling out compensation to rioters” was “absurd and offensive.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, meanwhile, described the fund as a “payout pot for punks” while speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Reportedly, among the deleted Justice Department releases were announcements related to seditious conspiracy cases against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two far-right extremist groups who had multiple leaders and members convicted for their roles in the attack.
Last month, the DOJ asked a federal appeals court to vacate those seditious conspiracy convictions, a request that was granted Thursday. The department moved on Friday to dismiss the cases.
Some news releases related to Jan. 6 remained accessible on the DOJ website as of Monday afternoon. These include statements about Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy, an announcement that 13 people were charged in federal court two days after the riot, then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s Jan. 7 statement describing the breach of the Capitol, and a statement from Attorney General Merrick Garland two years after the attack stressing the DOJ’s commitment to identifying perpetrators and pursuing charges.
Trump, on his first day back in office in January 2025, pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, including individuals convicted of assaulting police officers.
المصدر: TIME