Law School Report on January 6 Featured in Media

A report issued by the Law School’s Center for Policy and Research was featured in media across the country.

The report, "The January 6 Insurrectionists: Who They Are and What They Did," presents demographic data and provides a detailed examination of the disposition and charges brought against the 716 persons prosecuted in the first year after the storming of the Capitol.

Its findings were cited in a feature article in Forbes; a newsletter from Politico; a Tweet from MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin (242.5K Views, 2,383 Retweets), an op-ed from the editorial board of the Miami Herald; feature articles in The Daily Kos; USA Today-NJ network’s Bergen Record, Asbury Park Press, Daily Record that were also published by Yahoo News; and USA Today-Florida’s Palm Beach Post, Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Naples Daily News that were also featured by Yahoo News and AOL News. 

The Forbes article was written by Michael T. Nietzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University, and is entitled "A New Seton Hall University Report Profiles The People Prosecuted For January 6 Insurrection."

A fairly comprehensive review; the Forbes author details report findings on the types of charges and case dispositions, the age, race, gender, education, employment, state of origin, criminal records, whether or not the persons were found to be armed, whether they had a law enforcement or military background and whether or not they came to Washington, D.C. alone or with others. 

Noting that "The new report begins to shed some initial light on the questions that have puzzled many Americans ever since the January 6 attack on the Capitol – 'just who are these people,' 'where did they come from,' and 'what accounts for the violent acts so many were willing to commit that day?",
the Forbes author writes:

Researchers at Seton Hall University’s Center For Policy and Research have released a new detailed profile of the 716 people who’ve been prosecuted by the Department of Justice for their role in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
The 73-page report, The January 6 Insurrectionists: Who They Are and What They Did, under the direction of lead author Mark Denbeaux, a law professor at Seton Hall, offers an in-depth look into the makeup and backgrounds of those who’ve been prosecuted in connection with the events at the Capitol on January 6.

It summarizes dozens of demographic and other individual variables, including characteristics of the defendants’ actions, the criminal charges they faced, their organizations, and the dispositions of their cases. The report covers those people criminally charged by the Department of Justice for their participation in the Capital riot in the twelve months following January 6th, 2021.

The data were drawn from several sources, according to the report - "legal filings, including statements of fact issued by the FBI, criminal complaints, arrest warrants, indictments, and ancillary documents such as depositions and court transcripts. In some instances, the social media accounts or testimony of the defendants was considered along with information from reputable national news outlets and local newspapers of the defendants’ hometowns."

Politico featured the reports findings in its Nightly Newsetter as the "Nightly Number," representing, as did Kyle Griffin, executive producer at MSNBC, that 

716 people were prosecuted in the first year after storming the Capitol, according to new analysis from Seton Hall University. The U.S. government has won all but 12 cases brought, and 517 of the 716 cases brought were the result of information from tipsters or informants.

The Daily Kos featured the report’s findings in an article entitled "Donald Trump heads to court to be arraigned. Again," while AOL used the USA Today-Florida network’s "Indictment makes Donald Trump the latest Florida man charged with leading Jan. 6 attack."

The USA Today Network-NJ (Bergen Record, Asbury Park Press, Daily Record and also published by Yahoo News) featured the findings in "What happened to the more than two dozen NJ residents charged after Jan. 6?," noting that

A report released this summer by Seton Hall University researchers found that of the 716 people prosecuted in the first year after the storming of the Capitol, 25% were armed and 22% had a criminal record.

The report, "The January 6 Insurrectionists: Who They Are and What They Did," can be accessed through this link as can an interactive data set. 

To view a graphical representation of the data, please visit the link here. 

Categories: Law