240 Capitol rioters have been hit with this federal charge — and Trump may be next: report

President Donald Trump could find himself facing a federal prosecution under an obscure federal law that has come into vogue since the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"A third of the 700 people arrested by the Justice Department for attacking the U.S. Capitol building have been hit with a peculiar federal 'witness tampering' law, according to researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Those 240 insurrectionists have been charged with corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, a never-before-seen tactic by prosecutors for an equally unprecedented event," The Daily Beast reported Thursday. "So far, 12 have pleaded guilty, and three of those have already been sentenced."

Joshua E. Kastenberg, a professor at the University of New Mexico’s law school, explained how prosecutors' legal strategy is coming into focus.

“The DOJ and the committee are building a pyramid of guilt to get to the top. The more people who plead guilty, the more the top of the pyramid begins to take shape,” Kastenberg explained.

Jared Carter, a professor at Vermont Law School, explained the process of working up the chain of command.

“This is how you prosecute the mob. You don’t start at the top,” Carter said.

Read the full report.