It finally happened. The Department of Justice has charged someone with sedition. In fact, they charged 11 people with sedition, all of them members of the Oath Keepers. The indictment, which runs to 17 counts, describes a “plot to oppose by force the 2020 lawful transfer of presidential power.”
The indictment also includes a section that defines the purpose of the conspiracy in the following words:
Now, let’s look at the actual language of the law to see why they emphasize that “force” was used.
In this case, the 11 defendants brought weapons both to DC for use against the Capitol Police and to the outskirts of the city where they kept an armed unit in reserve. In other words, they did more than use their fists or impromptu weapons at hand to wage their violent attacks. They also planned ahead, so this wasn’t a matter of getting swept up in the crowd.
Some people who used violence might argue that they had no initial intention of participating in an assault on Congress. That could be a defense against the conspiracy element of sedition. Others, including members of the administration and Congress who aided and abetted the rioters, might argue that they didn’t personally use any force. And while these arguments may convince the Department of Justice not to charge them with sedition, this is a thin reed to rely on. They still were part of a seditious act.
The starting point for putting the January 6 coup attempt right is to treat it as the most serious of crimes, and this is the first time that the DOJ has done so.
It’s a very encouraging sign.
My only complaint is that DOJ names Stewart Rhodes as the leader of the conspiracy, and everybody in the world knows that he didn’t lead that conspiracy.
Your complaint is understandable. For what it’s worth, it appears to be a function of what it takes to prosecute conspiracies like this. 1) Indict low-level participants who have evidence that can be used against higher-level participants (e.g., Rhodes & company); offer plea deals and get some of them to flip/provide said evidence. 2) Then indict higher-level participants on more serious charges; offer plea deals and get some of them to flip/provide evidence. 3) Then indict their superiors (e.g. Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani); repeat. 4) *Then* go for the “king” (but you best not miss).
Marcy Wheeler says with enhancements for terrorism and kidnapping the jail time moves up to maybe 80 years. I seriously wonder why this is all not treason, for real. But then I’m not a lawyer. They should all go away for a long long time. Twenty years seems too small for me. Proud Boys next anyone?
I’m with you on the treason part. Just off the top I seem to recall “levying war” against one’s own nation is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.
Final-damn-ly
I hope to god this is a sign of things to come
I have read the recounting of the communications, which are documented between all the parties, several times. And it chills me more every time I read it. One person, in the span of about a weeks time in December, spent close to $20,000 on weapons, weapon accessories, and ammunition. That is on top of what he probably already had accumulated in his years of occupying the far right militia world. They all came prepared and enthusiastic about the prospect of “the shit hitting the fan”. They had several heavily armed quick reaction forces standing by in places proximate to DC transport into the capital a massive cache of arms. They even were working on a plan to have boats to transport arms across the Potomac to fellow insurrectionists waiting on the other side.
All of this talk sounds way too familiar to anyone who has spent time around far right people who fetishize their weapons, and feel as if they are the only true patriots standing in the way of a tyrannical (read: “Democrat”) government. The effort failed on that day, for a variety of reasons, but it wasn’t because of lack of resources to do significant damage and bring massive waves of death there. All the elements were in place, they just didn’t make the call to move that day.
None of these people should probably ever again see the outside of a federal prison. But the fact that there are millions and millions of people with the exact same attitudes, thoughts, and motivations as these people should be all one needs to recognize how close we are right now to an implosion. There are hundreds of millions of weapons, and probably billions of rounds of ammunition in the hands of people sympathetic to these radicals. And they are still just as angry, and probably more angry, as they all were on January 6. These people charged with sedition need to have serious enough repercussions that their example gives at least some of the future prospective insurrectionists some small pause, should they ever contemplate an effort at a reprise.
Regardless of the outcome here, in all likelihood there will be another “January 6” somewhere down the road, maybe sooner rather than later. Everyone better damn sure be steeling themselves for what might become necessary in their own communities in order to defend democracy in their own back yards. We are in the very early stages of what will likely, in the future, be looked on as one of the darkests periods in our history.
I understand they spent that 20k plus more for a total of 40k before Jan 20. Want to be prepared I suppose. I would bet that Trump is just a tad nervous at the moment as are many of his more strident supporters. Nobody really wants to go to jail and so it may have a bracing effect on many or so I hope.