“The Justice Department said Monday that people ‘lionizing’ the Jan. 6 rioters are heightening the risk of future political violence. ‘Indeed, the risk of future violence is fueled by a segment of the population that seems intent on lionizing the January 6 rioters and treating them as political prisoners, heroes, or martyrs instead of what they are: criminals,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Roman wrote in a court filing, ‘many of whom committed extremely serious crimes of violence, and all of whom attacked the democratic values which all of us should share.’ The statement came as part of a 28-page argument supporting the pretrial detention of Cody Mattice, a defendant charged with ripping down metal barricades and assaulting police during the attack on the Capitol.”

“It’s an indirect broadside at Republicans who have sought to whitewash the violence committed by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the assault on the Capitol. Trump himself has argued alternately that his supporters were ‘hugging and kissing’ police – rather than committing the approximately 1,000 assaults prosecutors say occurred – and has baselessly claimed that left-wing agitators caused the violence. Trump has taken up the cause of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter shot dead by a Capitol Police officer as she sought to breach the House chamber. And other Republicans in Congress have embraced claims that the Jan. 6 defendants are ‘political prisoners,’ arguing without evidence that the Justice Department has treated them harshly because of their politics, rather than their conduct” – Politico.