Inside the Feds’ Hunt for Hundreds of Capitol Riot Fugitives

Daily Beast

Executive Director, Christina Baal-Owens was quoted in this article.

This story covers the FBI’s ongoing search for the perpetrators of January 6th and the role that civilian and nonprofit groups play in identifying and tracking insurrectionists. FBI spokesperson Samantha Shero, Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at GW,  former FBI agent Dennis Franks, Tech Transparency Project director Katie Paul, and Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for Facebook, are quoted in the piece.

Public Wise, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group, is getting ready to launch its “Insurrection Index,” a searchable online database (now in beta form) of individuals and organizations linked in some way to the Capitol riot—not only those charged with crimes, but also those seen at associated rallies and events on the day of Jan. 6. Most importantly, according to Public Wise executive director Christina Baal-Owens, the index will identify those holding public office, or those now running for office, who were in any way involved with the events of Jan. 6 or any activities surrounding them, including helping to push Trump’s “Big Lie.” (The organization has so far identified nine Jan. 6-ers who have won local and state elections in the 12 months since.)

“As someone who has worked in politics for many years, I do believe that politics has a strangely short memory,” Baal-Owens told The Daily Beast. “And I share the fear that within a cycle or two, even things as egregious as putting a gallows up outside of the Capitol could be forgotten.”