Amid setbacks, prosecutors abandon some claims in U.S. Capitol riot cases
By Sarah N. Lynch | MARCH 24, 2021 | 2:24 PMWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors made some serious claims after the deadly U.S. Capitol attack, saying they had evidence rioters planned to kill elected officials, suggesting a Virginia man at the building received directives to gas lawmakers, and accusing another suspect of directing mayhem on Jan. 6 with encrypted messages.
But the Justice Department has since acknowledged in court hearings that some of its evidence concerning the riot - carried out by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump to try to overturn his election loss - is less damning than it initially indicated.
The department suffered another blow this week when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta threatened to impose a gag order on prosecutors after Michael Sherwin, its former head prosecutor on the Capitol cases, told CBS’s “60 Minutes†program that evidence pointed toward sedition charges against some defendants.
A charge of sedition - meaning incitement of a rebellion - has not been brought against any of the more than 400 people arrested to date. . . .
. . . . On Jan. 19, prosecutors said they believed Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy officer from Virginia, had a “leadership role†within the Oath Keepers. The FBI, in a criminal complaint, described Facebook messages Caldwell allegedly sent and received “while at the Capitol,†including one urging him to turn on the gas and tear up the floorboards.
“‘All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,’†it read.
A prosecutor in Florida read those words aloud in February in a bid to convince a judge to detain two of Caldwell’s co-defendants.
Prosecutors now acknowledge that Caldwell was not even a dues-paying member of the Oath Keepers and that they lack evidence he ever entered the Capitol.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-capitol-arrests-justice/amid-setbacks-prosecutors-abandon-some-claims-in-u-s-capitol-riot-cases-idUSKBN2BG30C
Any prosecutor who knowingly gives a false account to a judge in a criminal proceeding should be subject to prosecution him/herself as well as disbarment. This prosecutor tried to keep Caldwell behind bars based on statements they knew to be untrue. It is the prosecutor who should be behind bars.