在一次罕见的关于联邦对1月6日袭击国会大厦，司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)周三表示，司法部正在继续努力追究“任何级别”所有个人对袭击事件的“刑事责任”。

加兰说:“到目前为止，我们采取的行动不会是最后一次。“无论他们当天是否在场，或者是否对攻击我们的民主负有刑事责任。无论他们走到哪里，我们都将遵循事实。”

虽然加兰的讲话没有挑出任何具体的个人或目前正在被司法部起诉的案件，但他的言论相当于为政府对国会大厦袭击的调查反应进行了有力的辩护。

加兰对DOJ员工发表讲话之际，国会议员、法官和法律专家的批评加剧，他们认为，司法部迄今为止忽视了前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和他的盟友等更高调的个人，这些人助长了关于一场直接导致国会大厦骚乱的被盗选举的谎言，因为司法部积极起诉了袭击大楼的步兵。

加兰直接承认了这一批评，他敦促调查人员保持耐心，同时他们从现有案件和调查中建立线索，同时坚持部门的正常流程。

加兰说:“我们理解，关于调查需要多长时间，以及我们到底在做什么，存在一些问题。“对于任何正在进行的调查，我们的答案都是，并将继续是，我们会给出同样的答案:只要它需要，以及为了伸张正义所需要的一切——符合事实和法律。”

“我明白这可能不是一些人正在寻找的答案，”加兰补充道。“但我们会的，我们必须通过我们的工作来说话。任何其他事情都会危及我们调查的可行性和我们公民的公民自由。”

卡罗琳·卡斯特/普尔通过路透社

司法部长梅里克·加兰在司法部发表讲话.

袭击发生一年后，美国几乎每个州都有700多人面临联邦指控联邦调查局继续寻找数百名身份不明者的线索，包括350多名在国会大厦发生暴力行为的人。

70多人因1月6日的犯罪行为被判刑，其中30多人被判入狱。一名新泽西州男子被看到在围攻期间向警察投掷灭火器，他被法官判处了迄今为止最严厉的五年多监禁，这对目前面临袭击执法人员指控的200多人来说是一个不祥的信号。

但是，即使联邦对袭击国会大厦者的调查继续进行，DOJ，特别是加兰本人，也越来越多地发现自己成为公众监督的对象，批评者认为，对于追究像前总统唐纳德·特朗普或他的盟友这样敦促暴徒向国会进军或以其他方式努力推翻2020年选举结果的人的责任，他们似乎犹豫不决。

许多人提出了批评法律专家前检察官和立法者在社论版和有线电视新闻露面，甚至已经扩大到至少一名联邦法官监督1月6日骚乱者的起诉。

例如，在11月份对1月6日暴乱者约翰·洛洛斯(John Lolos)的判决听证会上，地区法官阿米特·梅塔(Amit Mehta)将洛洛斯描述为“被惩罚的棋子”，尽管那些为暴乱“创造条件”的人“没有被追究责任。”

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images，FILE

2021年1月6日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在华盛顿举行的“停止偷窃”集会上向人群致意。

加兰在周三的演讲中继续以近乎教授式的方式讲述了DOJ通常如何进行复杂的调查，比如对国会大厦袭击的调查，他指出，调查人员通常从自下而上的方法开始，在建立更高调的指控时，从简单的案件中剔除。

“在像1月6日那样的情况下，全面核算不会突然实现。为了确保所有负有刑事责任的人都被追究责任，我们必须收集证据，”加兰说。“我们遵循物证。我们追踪数字证据。我们跟着钱走。但最重要的是，我们遵循事实，而不是议程或假设。事实告诉我们下一步该何去何从。”

他一再强调，他坚持认为DOJ应继续在平等公正的基本原则下运作，他说，“不能根据一个人的政党或党派制定不同的规则。朋友和敌人不能有不同的规则。强国和弱国不能有不同的规则。”

加兰说:“我们在同样的规范指导下进行每一项调查。“即使在我们面临的环境不正常的时候，尤其是在这种情况下，我们也坚持这些规范。”

此次讲话发表之际，1月6日调查国会大厦围攻事件的众议院特别委员会(House select committee)正在进行平行调查，该委员会继续透露特朗普在袭击之前、期间和之后的行动细节，以及他的核心圈子试图推翻乔·拜登(Joe Biden)总统选举胜利的活动细节。

两党委员会的联合主席，众议员本尼·汤普森，D-Miss。共和党众议员利兹·切尼(Liz Cheney，R-Wyo)最近几周表示，如果他们发现他们认为相当于非法行为的证据，可能会将特定个人的潜在刑事案件移交给DOJ。

该委员会已经将前特朗普顾问史蒂夫·班农和前白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯两人移交给DOJ，原因是他们无视国会传票。11月，DOJ以两项藐视国会罪起诉了班农，目前对他的审判定于7月进行。

华盛顿特区的美国检察官办公室在12月中旬收到梅多斯的藐视法庭案件后，尚未对他采取行动。

Garland defends DOJ probe into Capitol attack, vows to hold those accountable 'at any level'

In a rare address on the vast federal investigation into theJan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that the Justice Department is continuing to work to hold accountable, "at any level," all individuals "criminally responsible" for the attack.

"The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last," Garland said. "Whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. We will follow the facts wherever they lead."

While Garland's speech did not single out any specific individuals or cases currently being prosecuted by the department, his remarks amounted to a vigorous defense of the government's investigative response to the Capitol assault.

Garland's address to the DOJ workforce came amid heightened criticism from lawmakers, judges and legal experts who have argued that the department has thus far ignored higher-profile individuals like former President Donald Trump and his allies who stoked the lies about a stolen election that directly led to the Capitol riot -- as it aggressively prosecutes the foot soldiers who physically stormed the building.

Garland directly acknowledged that criticism, as he urged patience with investigators while they build leads from existing cases and investigations all while adhering to the department's normal processes.

"We understand that there are questions about how long the investigation will take, and about what exactly we are doing," Garland said. "Our answer is, and will continue to be, the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation: as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done -- consistent with the facts and the law."

"I understand that this may not be the answer some are looking for," Garland added. "But we will and we must speak through our work. Anything else jeopardizes the viability of our investigations and the civil liberties of our citizens."

One year after the assault,more than 700 people across nearly every state in the U.S. have faced federal chargesfor joining the riot -- and the FBI continues to seek tips on hundreds more still-unidentified individuals, including more than 350 who committed violent acts while on Capitol grounds.

More than 70 people have been sentenced for their criminal conduct on Jan. 6, including more than 30 ordered to time behind bars. A New Jersey man seen hurling a fire extinguisher at police during the siege received the harshest sentence handed down by a judge thus far of more than five years in prison, an ominous sign for the more than 200 individuals currently facing charges of assaulting law enforcement.

But even as the federal investigation into those who carried out the attack on the Capitol charges forward, DOJ and specifically, Garland himself, have increasingly found themselves the subject of public scrutiny over what critics have argued is a seeming hesitance to hold accountable those like former President Donald Trump or his allies who urged the rioters to march toward Congress or otherwise worked to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The criticism has been levied by numerouslegal experts, former prosecutors and lawmakers in editorial pages and cable news appearances -- and has even extended to at least one of the federal judges overseeing the prosecutions of the Jan. 6 rioters.

In a November sentencing hearing for Jan. 6 rioter John Lolos, for instance, District Judge Amit Mehta described Lolos as a "pawn" being punished even as those who "created the conditions" for the insurrection "in no meaningful sense of the word have been held to account."

In his speech Wednesday, Garland went on to provide an almost professorial-style lecture into how DOJ typically conducts complex investigations like the one into the attack on the Capitol, noting that investigators usually start with a bottom-up approach of rooting out simpler cases as they build to more high-profile charges.

"In circumstances like those of January 6th, a full accounting does not suddenly materialize. To ensure that all those criminally responsible are held accountable, we must collect the evidence," Garland said. "We follow the physical evidence. We follow the digital evidence. We follow the money. But most important, we follow the facts -- not an agenda or an assumption. The facts tell us where to go next."

He emphasized repeatedly his insistence that the DOJ continue to operate under bedrock principles of equal justice, saying, "there cannot be different rules depending on one’s political party or affiliation. There cannot be different rules for friends and foes. And there cannot be different rules for the powerful and the powerless."

"We conduct every investigation guided by the same norms," Garland said. "And we adhere to those norms even when, and especially when, the circumstances we face are not normal."

The speech comes as a parallel investigation by the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the Capitol siege continues to trickle out details of Trump's actions before, during and after the attack as well as the activities of his inner circle who were seeking to overturn President Joe Biden's election victory.

The co-chairs of the bipartisan committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., have said in recent weeks that potential criminal referrals to DOJ for specific individuals could be on the table if they find what they believe amounts to evidence of unlawful conduct.

The committee has already made two referrals to DOJ for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows over their defiance of congressional subpoenas. DOJ indicted Bannon in November on two counts of contempt of Congress and his trial is currently set for July.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. has yet to take action against Meadows after receiving his contempt referral in mid-December.