Storm on US Capitol: couple plead guilty

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Attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021

Photo: John Minchillo / AP

The images of January 6th rocked the United States.

Thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, overran security forces and threatened politicians.

Several people were killed.

Trump brought his involvement in the uprisings in an impeachment process.

But their behavior on that day now also has consequences for less prominent participants.

Hundreds of cases are pending in US courts.

A development on Monday could point the way for these procedures.

A Virginia couple pleaded guilty in Washington for demonstrating on the Capitol grounds without permission.

This is an administrative offense; the maximum penalty is six months in prison.

However, the sentence in the current case will only be announced at a later point in time.

The couple agreed to pay $ 1,000 in damages together on Monday.

A total of around 450 people have to expect fines because of the events on January 6th.

Much harsher sentences are expected for alleged leaders of the storm.

Senate report exposes security forces

The work-up continues elsewhere.

A non-partisan report from two Senate committees appeared last week.

According to this, US security authorities had certainly had indications of an impending attack - without drawing the right conclusions from it.

The paper is a damning testimony.

Critical information about the threat was not passed on.

The leadership of the Capitol Police was also poorly prepared.

During the attack, communication was chaotic, sporadic and, according to many police officers, "did not exist".

The report last Tuesday said that the investigation into the attack revealed a number of errors by the security authorities.

For example, neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security warned of the threat, even though there were calls for violence on the Internet.

jok / Reuters