FBI arrests three people linked to January 6, 2021, insurrection

United States authorities announced the arrest of three people wanted in connection with the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, as the country marked the third anniversary of the violent attack by Donald Trump’s supporters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Jonathan D Pollock, 24, his sister, Olivia M Pollock, 33 and Joseph D Hutchinson, 27, at a ranch in Groveland, Florida, the FBI said in a statement on Saturday. The three will be arraigned on Monday.

All are charged with assaulting officers, violent entry into the Capitol and other felonies.

The three had been indicted in April 2021. Jonathan Pollock had gone into hiding shortly after the attack while his sister and Hutchinson had been arrested in June 2021 and released on bond, but fled shortly before they were set to go on trial in Washington, DC last March.

The FBI had offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who they “considered armed and dangerous”.

According to a 53-page indictment, Jonathan Pollock and Hutchinson are on video recordings, repeatedly punching officers during the riots. Pollock is also alleged to have grabbed riot shields from officers, and he and Hutchinson are accused of using the edge of one to strike an officer in the neck or face.

In June 2021, the Pollocks’ brother, Gabriel, defended his siblings and Hutchinson in an interview with The Ledger, Lakeland’s newspaper, saying: “I do feel like it is a political move that’s being perpetrated, which – it’s sad.”

“I think people are pretty fed up with the way the country’s being taken away from the people,” he added.

January 6, 2021

Three years ago, a crowd of thousands attacked the US Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, spurred on by false claims the election had been “rigged” against Republican incumbent Trump.

More than 2,000 people entered the Capitol building, smashing windows, ransacking offices, defecating in public spaces and searching for members of Congress. The assault was ultimately unsuccessful but it has set off alarm bells about the stability of US democracy and the growing influence of anti-democratic elements within the Republican Party.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden took a jab at Trump, who was the country’s president at the time, calling him out for inaction on January 6 and election-related lies.

“It was among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history,” Biden said in Pennsylvania.

Trump hit back at Biden at a rally in Iowa on Friday. “Not one thing has gotten better under crooked Joe Biden. Everything’s a mess,” he said. But he only briefly addressed the events of January 6 repeating unfounded claims that the 2020 contest was marred by widespread voter fraud.

The US continues to grapple with the fallout from the attack. More than 950 people have been charged with federal crimes relating to the riot, with some facing accusations of seditious conspiracy – a rare but serious offence.

The US Department of Justice added that 192 of those defendants have been sentenced to time behind bars and 484 have pleaded guilty to various crimes.