What is Justice for J6? Rally has DC on high alert for this weekend

Washington, D.C. is bracing for an upcoming far-right rally at the U.S. Capitol this weekend and authorities are taking measures to anticipate potential violence beforehand.

The Justice for J6 rally, organized by former Trump campaign operative Matt Braynard and his organization Look Ahead America, is anticipated to take place on Saturday. The rally is an attempt to push Justice Department officials to drop charges against the more than 600 people charged in connection with January’s violent Capitol insurrection, The Guardian reported.

Look Ahead America has referred to those protesters as “non-violent,” despite the fact that the riots resulted in five deaths and numerous injuries, Teen Vogue reported.

Top security officials are expected to authorize the use of deadly force for Capitol police and reinstall a 7-foot-tall fence around the Capitol in anticipation of Saturday’s rally, The Guardian reported. Officials have not yet sought the support of the National Guard.

Braynard told Fox 5 in D.C. that he estimates 700 people will attend the rally, though he doesn’t know for sure. No lawmakers, including House Republicans who have been scrutinized for their roles in the Jan. 6 attacks, have said they will attend, The Guardian said.

However, Republican politicians, including House Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Louie Gohmert have previously backed calls to support the people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riots, Teen Vogue reported.

Braynard also told Buzzfeed News that members of Congress would speak at the rally, though he didn’t say who.

Unclear how many will attend

It’s unclear whether individuals or groups associated with far-right extremism plan to attend the event. Mother Jones reported over the weekend that members of groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have denied having plans to attend, with one member of the Proud Boys telling Mother Jones that the event seemed like “bait” to lure members into the hands of law enforcement. Other members have said they will attend and have encouraged others within those groups to do so.

“I’ve seen maybe a couple of threads on [right-wing forums] or comments here or there,” Jared Holt, a research fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab who tracks far-right extremism online, told Mother Jones. “But at the moment, there’s not much to support the idea that this will get enough momentum to even scratch the surface of what happened on Jan. 6.”

Still, law enforcement officials are advocating for heightened scrutiny and preparation for the event. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN last week that law enforcement officials in Washington should “take it very seriously.”

“In fact, they should take it more seriously than they took the same sort of intelligence that they likely saw on Jan. 5,” McCabe said.

Giuliani’s call for ‘trial by combat’

The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was led by far-right extremists — many of them armed and screaming threats of violence determined to disrupt U.S. representatives and senators as they put the finishing touches on the presidency of Donald Trump.

The extremists, along with thousands of other Trump loyalists, had come to D.C. to support the president in his final days in office. After a high-energy rally at the White House — where Trump urged them to march on Capitol Hill and Rudy Giuliani called for them to use “trial by combat” — they did just that.

The mostly white mob tore through barricades and smashed windows as they charged and desecrated the Capitol. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.

The insurrection also left over 140 Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers injured. Four officers who responded to the attacks have since died by suicide, Reuters reported.

A week after the attack the U.S House voted to impeach Trump on charges of “incitement of insurrection” and the FBI warned of more armed protests leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Those protests never materialized — instead, the attack’s aftermath has been filled with arrests of those who stormed the Capitol and revelations about what it was like inside the Capitol the day of the siege.

Defendants have received jail time

Many of the individuals who participated in the Jan. 6 riots have not been sentenced. However, federal prosecutors said on Friday that most of the people who breached the Capitol should expect to face jail time, Politico reported.

“Misdemeanor breaches of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were not minor crimes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Birney said in a sentencing memo for Valerie Ehrke, one of the defendants charged for participating in the riots, Politico reported. “A probationary sentence … should not necessarily become the default.”

Birney ultimately did recommend Ehrke for probation, as she only entered the Capitol for one minute, did not commit violence or property destruction, and voluntarily spoke to law enforcement, being one of the first participants to plead guilty, Politico said. Other defendants have so far received up to 8 months of jail time.

Jeff James, retired assistant special agent in charge at the Secret Service, told Fox 5 that he thinks law enforcement will be better prepared for potential violence this time.

“You need to make sure mistakes that happened the first time aren’t repeated the second time,” James said. “So you need to make sure you’re reading the intelligence and you need to make sure you’re prepared … I would rather, in dynamic situations like this, have people standing around bored and overprepared than underprepared and have people get hurt.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 4:57 PM.