{"id":2707,"date":"2026-05-23T14:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/05\/23\/trumps-justice-department-scrubs-its-website-of-news-releases-about-january-6-defendants\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T14:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:39:39","slug":"trumps-justice-department-scrubs-its-website-of-news-releases-about-january-6-defendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=2707","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s justice department scrubs its website of news releases about January 6 defendants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border);background-color:var(--article-inner-background)\" class=\"dcr-wqti5a\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2zxs1v\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tr9ye5\">\n<figure id=\"296e4e26-bce4-4a97-84eb-ce2ec3cd71aa\" class=\"dcr-142siv7\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"People climb a wall and wave Trump flags.\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/a2d06e737cdaf09c872f7060b8fe684cada4fe3b\/0_0_5759_3840\/master\/5759.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310.05382878972046\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><span class=\"dcr-v822l1\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-gup2gr\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fntg6k\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-1xgwz8b\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1os51wo\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Supporters of Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the US Capitol as they try to storm the building on 6 January 2021.<\/span> Photograph: Jos\u00e9 Luis Maga\u00f1a\/AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"296e4e26-bce4-4a97-84eb-ce2ec3cd71aa\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-n4pnam\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1hdkqum\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Supporters of Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the US Capitol as they try to storm the building on 6 January 2021.<\/span> Photograph: Jos\u00e9 Luis Maga\u00f1a\/AP<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1aqe7zu\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-1k1a1x\">Trump&#8217;s justice department scrubs its website of news releases about January 6 defendants<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-15in7js\">\n<p>Department of Justice acknowledges the removal of news releases about criminal cases related to 2021 Capitol attack<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-kn9unn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1a4fred\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-ydnaza\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1c9t5u6\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Department of Justice is acknowledging it has removed from its website news releases about criminal cases related to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/us-capitol-breach\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">6 January 2021 Capitol attack<\/a>, calling the information about the prosecutions \u201cpartisan propaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The purge of news releases documenting criminal charges, convictions and sentencings is the latest step by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Trump administration<\/a> to dramatically rewrite the history of the assault on the US Capitol, when hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building in an effort to halt the congressional certification of his 2020 election loss to Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/joebiden\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Trump, on his first day back in office in January 2025 , pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes during the Capitol assault, including those convicted of attacking officers with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"469e9660-e0b2-479e-92cb-9c8240c80d49\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\">\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-3 | 3\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-name=\"placeholder\" class=\"dcr-1kyw41h\">\n<div data-format-theme=\"5\" data-format-design=\"0\" data-format-display=\"0\" class=\"dcr-1ljij2n\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/18\/trump-dismiss-10-billion-dollar-irs-lawsuit\" class=\"dcr-1m887w9\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-ut4tvs\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1h5b6rb\">\n<div class=\"dcr-169d7yv\">Trump dismisses $10bn suit against IRS and creates $1.7bn \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 fund<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-eurq8n\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fkf7vq\">Read more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">On Monday, the justice department announced the creation of a $1.776bn fund meant to compensate Trump allies who feel they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has not ruled out that rioters convicted of violence will be eligible for payouts, prompting bipartisan anger in Congress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">After a journalist on Friday observed on the social media platform X that the justice department was \u201cquietly\u201d removing news releases on its website that were related to the January 6 attack, including about a Texas man who pleaded guilty to assault and also faced separate state charges of soliciting a minor, the department responded through its \u201crapid response\u201d account that there was \u201cnothing \u2018quiet\u2019 about it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe are proud to reverse the [justice department\u2019s] weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes,\u201d the post said. \u201cThis includes stripping [the justice department\u2019s] website of partisan propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Among the releases removed from the site were those concerning seditious conspiracy cases against members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, far-right extremist groups. The justice department, in an unopposed motion last month, asked a federal appeals court to vacate those seditious conspiracy convictions, a request that was granted on Thursday. The department on Friday moved to dismiss the cases against the group members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-qxqnsy\"><span class=\"dcr-1rq3vad\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1dzx48f\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-1rrvs2w\">\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-capitol-breach\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US Capitol attack<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-justice-system\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US justice system<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/trump-administration\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Trump administration<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-crime\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US crime<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-nu129i\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Trump's%20justice%20department%20scrubs%20its%20website%20of%20news%20releases%20about%20January%206%20defendants&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/23\/trump-justice-department-scrubs-website-january-6-defendants?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-125qj9d\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-zhx6xs\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fmay%2F23%2Ftrump-justice-department-scrubs-website-january-6-defendants&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/may\/23\/trump-justice-department-scrubs-website-january-6-defendants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-14rjinq\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1h2hraq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tn16h9\">\n<section class=\"dcr-1hko8ef\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supporters of Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the US Capitol as they try to storm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}