WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to focus on arresting the “most egregious” rioters since Jan. 6 — especially those who have committed criminal attacks on law enforcement officers but have not yet been arrested — in the remaining 72 days before President-elect Donald Trump returns. at the White House, a law enforcement official told NBC News this week.

Trump is expected to close the years-long investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack and has said he will “absolute“ I’m sorry some, if not allof his supporters who stormed the US Capitol that day, labeling them “warrior,” “unbelievable patriots,” political prisoners and “hostages.” A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on whether Trump would consider a pardon, though the campaign previously said it would pardon the Jan. 6 charges “on a case-by-case basis when he returns to the White House.” . .”

In light of Trump’s stunning election victory, federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section received guidance this week on how to proceed with cases pending Jan. 6, NBC News has learned, including a directive to oppose the defendant’s requests for adjournment from January 6. Prosecutors are instructed to argue that there is a societal interest in the speedy administration of justice and these cases should be dealt with in the normal course.

As for the new arrests, the law enforcement official said, prosecutors “will focus on the most egregious behaviors and cases through the end of the administration.” It is unlikely that there will be any further arrests of defendants for misdemeanors since Jan. 6 — such as those who entered the Capitol but did not attack law enforcement — unless a judge has already cleared those cases, but the cases of criminal assault will continue, the official said.

Online detectives who have helped the FBI make hundreds of arrests of Capitol rioters told NBC News they have identified and submitted evidence to the bureau about 75 people who are currently on the FBI Capitol Violence webpage and tagged as wanted for assault on a federal officer or assault on the media, both felonies.

Federal officials should pick up the pace to get only those cases across the finish line before Trump makes his way through the Lower West Tunnel — where his supporters battled law enforcement in a battle described by several officials as “medieval” – to take the oath. on January 20, 2025.

“Just over 1 a day,” one of the online “sedition hunters” who devoted hours of his life to finding the Trump supporters who brutally assaulted law enforcement officers that day, told NBC News. “Place your bets!”

“We haven’t spent the last four years tracking down these criminals only to have dozens of them avoid prosecution because half the country is crazy,” said another online detective. “Our work continues, as does the DOJ.”

The existing cases against the defendants from Jan. 6 are expected to continue, with additional trials, sentencing hearings and plea hearings scheduled next week.

The FBI has so far arrested more than 1,560 defendants since January 6. Prosecutors obtained more than 1,100 convictions, and more than 600 defendants received prison terms ranging from days in jail to 22 years in federal prison.

This week, a rioter who attacked law enforcement officers and smashed windows in the House Speaker’s lobby just before a colleague was shot – and then became the target of a conspiracy theory suggesting he was a federal informant — was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

A former assistant attorney in the Justice Department’s Capitol Siege Section told NBC News this week that prosecutors are proud of the work they’ve done, but are understandably nervous about the future and demoralized. Many prosecutors got involved in these cases because of their desire to uphold the rule of law and defend democracy, the former assistant U.S. attorney said, but the cases have become about claiming victims, who are primarily police officers.

“You spend any amount of time understanding what the hell police officers have been through and watching body cams where you’re in their shoes and you see people physically assaulting them and cheap shooting them and backstabbing them and using racial slurs. slurs against them, hours and hours when they sat there and tried to protect the Capitol and the people inside it, and the cases become about the victims,” he said. “So the idea that the people who committed those crimes against those victims, the people who assaulted those officers, would be pardoned, hopefully people think twice before they do that.”

The prospect of presidential pardons for people who have attacked law enforcement is “pretty demoralizing,” the former assistant U.S. attorney said.

“The idea that the most powerful person in the country says it’s okay, it’s okay for the person who sprayed them with bear spray, or hit them with a hockey stick, or dragged them down the stairs, or the case of Michael FanoneHe shoved it down their throats and gave them a heart attack, or, just in case Daniel Hodgesget them between the doors and keep getting them between the doors … while Hodges was screaming for his life, that part of her is so unfortunate,” he said.

Prosecutors are immensely proud of the work they’ve done and take solace in the idea that in courtrooms—where facts, not political rhetoric, control the outcome of jury trials—American citizens who faced the real evidence did the right thing, the first ones. said the prosecutor.

“The evidence is overwhelming and the officers’ testimony was overwhelming,” he said. “Time and time and time again, when people are confronted with evidence, it points in the same direction.”

Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonella Dominican Republican immigrant and military veteran who wrote a book about his experience of coming to America, learning English, serving in the military, and then being repeatedly assaulted by his fellow Americans at the Capitol on January 6, continues to attend sentencing hearings for the criminals who assaulted him . The injuries from the attack forced him retire in 2022; he is in his mid 40s.

Gonell, who campaigned on behalf of Kamala Harris, said she won’t let the Jan. 6 story go away, even after Trump takes office.

“Whether they forgive them or not, it doesn’t take away what they did and what I went through,” Gonell said. “They…they can’t erase that history.”

“If you take Trump’s name out of the equation and if you take out who they were supporting, would the people who voted for him agree with what happened? Would they support me?” Gonell asked. “And that is the question. It creates moral prejudice.”

“It’s not a good feeling,” he continued, “when you feel like nobody cares about what happened that day.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com