How DOJ prosecutors turned January 6 rioters into martyrs

On January 20, 2025, the “shock and awe” campaign of the Justice Department came to an end as President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 January 6th defendants.Four years ago, the Justice Department set out to send a chilling message to the nation.In an interview with CBS News a year later, Justice Department official Michael Sherwin indicated that they wanted to send a message with the harsh treatment of defendants.  Sherwin explained that “our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe … it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C.

because they’re, like, ‘If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.’ … We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.”The awe is gone but the shock remains at the Justice Department.If Sherwin and his colleagues hoped to “Trump proof” that nation, they failed in spectacular fashion.

While there was ample basis for criminal charges, the excessive treatment of some of the January 6th defendants undermined the credibility of their prosecutions for many.That is no easy feat.Most of us denounced the January 6th riot as a desecration of our constitutional process.

Those who engaged in the rioting, and most importantly the violence, needed to be punished.However, what followed left many of us increasingly uneasy.The Justice Department rounded up hundreds and, even though most were charged with relatively minor crimes of unlawful entry or trespass, the Justice Department opposed the release of many from jail and sought absurdly long sentences.In my recent book, “Indispensable Right,” I discuss these cases and their troubling elements.

A good example is the handling of the most well-known case of the so-called QAnon Shaman.Bare-chested, wearing an animal headdress, horns, and red-white-and-blue face paint, Jake Angeli Chansley became the iconic image of the riot.Seeking to make examples of t...