ICYMI: January 6 Prosecutors Raise Alarm Over Trump Judicial Nominees' Refusal to Truthfully Answer Questions About 2020 Election, Attack on the Capitol

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were joined by three former federal prosecutors to raise alarm over the ongoing refusal of Trump Administration judicial nominees to acknowledge the results of the 2020 election or admit that what happened on January 6, 2021, was an attack on the Capitol. The three prosecutors – Michael Romano, Sean Murphy, and Brendan Ballou – worked on cases relating to violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Earlier today, they joined a group of twelve former federal prosecutors who all worked on cases relating to the violent attack on the Capitol in sending a letter urging members of the Senate to reject judicial nominees who cannot “cannot identify that (1) January 6 as an attack on our democracy, (2) the attack was led by supporters of Donald Trump, and (3) Joe Biden was legitimately elected in the 2020 election.” Video of today’s press conference is available here . Michael Romano Michael Romano prosecuted rioters who brawled with police officers on Capitol grounds, who attacked officers with wooden and metal poles, and who pepper-sprayed officers defending the Tunnel. As a manager, Romano also oversaw many cases prosecuted by others. Romano also served as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section between 2019 and 2025. “The fact of the matter was, the riot was an attack on our democracy. It was an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power. It was an attempt to install the loser of the 2020 election back in office against the will of the American people. I know this because the evidence was overwhelming,” Romano said. “The evidence was so clear that the judges who presided over our trials and sentenced these defendants said so over and over again. They recognized that the riot was an attack on American democracy. They recognized how damaging it was to our institutions. They commented about how political violence was unacceptable, and sentences were needed to deter future political violence. All told, the evidence was so clear that we convicted 1200 people of offenses that happened at the Capitol on January 6th before Trump pardoned them all.” “Now, these people were convicted before Republicans and Democratic judges, they were sentenced before Republican and Democratic judges, judges appointed by any President of any party recognized the truth of what this day was. And anybody seeking a position on the bench now should be able to do the same. They should be able to tell the truth.” Sean Murphy Sean P. Murphy joined the Capitol Siege Section in January 2021 and remained with the team until it was disbanded in January 2025. Among those Murphy investigated, prosecuted, and secured convictions against are an individual who beat an officer with a flagpole with the American flag still attached until the flagpole broke; an off-duty police officer; a man that used wasp spray to attack police officers, and a man that punched a police officer twice in the head before ripping away the officer's riot shield, leaving him defenseless. Murphy also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico between 2018 and 2025. “To the Senators voting on these nominees today, please stop poisoning our courts by confirming appointees who refuse to admit basic historical truths. This is not a problem of perspective or political persuasion; it is fundamental question of competence. We would no more hire a schoolteacher who refuses to believe in fractions, or a mechanic who won’t admit that gas goes in a gas tank than you should confirm someone to a lifetime seat on the bench who cannot admit that Donald Trump lost, and who refuses to recognize that those who assaulted police officers at the U.S. Capitol were wrong to do so,” Murphy said. “To the judicial nominees playing this game – if successful, you may have won yourself a lifetime appointment , but you have lost a lifetime of credibility. Every time you try to lecture a defendant from your bench about the right and the just, over the easy and the self-serving, those words will ring hollow. Why? Because the only reason you are only sitting there because you chose the easy and the self-serving. You traded a piece of your soul to occupy the seat.” “We need judges who do not just dole out justice but actually live it. Justice is blind, but it is not ignorant, and the ignorant can never truly be just.” Brendan Ballou Brendan Ballou was involved in the trial teams that prosecuted a husband-and-wife duo who assaulted officers along the Capitol's western front before they were finally repelled by pepper spray, and prosecuted one of the first rioters who entered the Senate chamber, who triumphantly stood atop the dais within the chamber. Ballou also served as Special Counsel in the Antitrust Division from 2016 to 2017 and from 2020 to 2025. “So, we have a president that is trying to subvert a future election, we have an acting Attorney General who is eager to help in that effort, and the danger that we face with these judicial nominees is that future court cases that will determine whether our democracy continues may be people who deny the reality of January 6 th ,” Ballou said. “Think about how dangerous it is, how scary it is, to have a court case about voting rights, about democracy, about the rule of law, prosecuted by Todd Blanche, and overseen by one of these judges who denies the reality of what happened that day. So, it is important to be talking about this, it is important that these judges not be confirmed if they refuse to acknowledge the reality of January 6 th . “Not just for the sake of historical memory, but for the sake of the future of our democracy.” -30-