Pro Trump insurrectionists who went into the Capitol without an invitation were there in support of a President who has spent the past year politicizing a public health crisis --indeed, undermining the. data and guidelines from his own agencies-- instead of providing sensible health-related education and leadership to states and the general population on how to deal with it to our overall benefit.
So about the "mere followers" who ended up in the Capitol on January 6th, are we saying ignorance is an even bigger excuse to go lightly on them because their lives and livelihood may have been financially imperiled already (or because of covid)?
People have a right to assemble peacefully to protest regarding rederess of real or perceived grievances. So just because you went to an organized protest that day and were on the grounds, your mere presence certainly doesn't make you a criminal.
If you had something to do with planning the incursionm, that's different. There were likely some people out there on the grounds who meant to join the scrum at the doors and get in there, with or without meaning harm to officials and staffers in there, but who didn't make it that far before people started being thrown back out of the place. But unless such missed-the-boat people are named and there's proof of their having helped plan the incursion, I don't see how they can be charged with anything so long as they were not violent while remaining outside the buildings. They might need schooling but that can't be mandated: the protest itself was organized and had acquired permits.
But then there is the "swept up in the moment" argument for going light on some of those who ended up inside the Capitol. Even though one can see what appears to be a sense of bewilderment, unease or disappointment on some faces in some of the photos and videos, I dunno about that argument.
I mean if you walk in behind people who have broken windows to get there, if you approached an entrance and took in scenes of police trying to prevent entry as others pressed forward, what the hell were you thinking if you joined in that movement?
"Oh I'll just see what it's like in there, since some other people already broke in..." ??!
Maybe there's no such charge as "being too spineless to resist peer pressure to commit a crime". But seems to me that there should be something a little north of littering or trespassing.