How many January 6th rioters?

October 13, 2022 7:25 PM

Do we know how many people attended the TFG's speech on January 6, 2021 including those who didn't go through the magnetometers? I can't find any numbers other than what the various law enforcement groups were expecting and those predictions range from 2,000 to 80,000.
posted by donpardo to Society & Culture (2 answers total)

Best answer: To be clear, you want to know how many people attended Trump's speech, not how many were present during the attack on the Capitol?

This Newsweek article from December 2021, based on classified documents, says 25,000 were screened for entry to Trump's speech, while another 15,000 "positioned themselves between the Ellipse and the Washington Monument, outside the restricted area." It also says there were as many as 120,000 protesters in the area overall, but I'm not clear if that's an actual Secret Service/FBI estimate, or just Newsweek adding up numbers from event permits and other sources.

This AP article quotes internal police emails from Jan 6 saying there were 25,000 people "around the White House" at noon, when the speech started (maybe they got this number from the screenings?), and that 10-15,000 marched toward the Capitol afterward.

I don't know if the Jan 6 committee has produced other estimates.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 8:50 AM on October 14, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks! Those are the best numbers I can find as well.
posted by donpardo at 10:24 AM on October 17, 2022