A year after the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the British burned it nearly 208 years ago, the FBI hasn't stopped working to identify the rioters whoAgents and analysts are combing through tens of thousands of photos and videos, using facial recognition software and cellphone records that allow them to plot the movement of people inside the Capitol — the largest such use of that technique.
"The attacks happened all over the Capitol grounds," said Steven D'Antuono, the FBI's assistant director in charge of its Washington field office."It wasn't just one punch and done. It was multiple times that these officers, men and women, were assaulted." "We've had had restaurant workers turn somebody in because they overheard them talking about it. We've had ride-share drivers who heard or saw something out of the ordinary and gave us a tip."
His researchers found, for example, that 43 percent of the rioters charged could be considered white-collar workers, and more than a quarter owned their own businesses. "It does matter in terms of a record of history, to get a sense of what this event was all about," he said."Was it a perfect storm of a failure of security, of extremists all coalescing around the Capitol, or was this something greater?"
What a massive waist of time. But it keeps him from looking into real crime, like Hunter.