Oath Keepers indictment suggests DOJ is sitting on searing Jan. 6 evidence
By Barbara McQuade
The most interesting aspect of the recent indictments of 11 people accused of involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on charges of seditious conspiracy isnt who has been charged but who might be charged next. The Justice Department unveiled a 48-page indictment Thursday accusing the 11 defendants of conspiring to oppose by force the governments transition of presidential power, a jaw-dropping allegation under most circumstances.
But for all of us who watched the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, it seems like a fitting response. While this offense is rarely charged, the Justice Department didnt flinch from using it in this case, which Attorney General Merrick Garland has called an assault on democracy. And its likely that prosecutors arent done yet.
The defendants are alleged to be members of the Oath Keepers, a group described in the indictment as a large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias. The indictment says the Oath Keepers explicitly focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement and first-responder personnel. The leader of the group, Stewart Rhodes, is a former Army paratrooper and a Yale Law School graduate.
The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to thwart the election results before, during and after Jan. 6 by recruiting, training and organizing teams to oppose the transfer of power. They are accused of amassing an arsenal of weapons as part of their plot. On Jan. 6, members of the group arranged themselves in formations and entered the Capitol, the indictment says. Others served as an armed Quick Response Team off-site to provide reinforcements later after the initial teams had breached the Capitol, it says.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/oath-keeper-sedition-indictments-are-just-beginning-doj-n1287616
sheshe2
(83,785 posts)Budi
(15,325 posts)The document quotes a text message from Rhodes in November 2020 saying: We arent getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit. In another message, Rhodes is alleged to have written, We must now do what the people of Serbia did when [Slobodan] Milosovic stole their election Refuse to accept it, and march en masse to the nations Capitol.
He sent a link to a step-by-step video from one of the organizers of the Serbian operation in 2000 explaining how demonstrators forced Milosevic to resign: We stormed the Parliament. And burned down fake state Television! WE WON! The content of other text messages appears throughout the indictment. No evidence is more powerful than the incriminating words of a defendant himself"
"Working up the chain of organized criminal conduct is part of the standard Justice Department playbook.."
"Who funded all of that equipment? Perhaps one of the 11 defendants who could face up to 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy will be persuaded to tell."
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Good read 👍
Thanks
Mopar151
(9,983 posts)The lot of them look like the American Freedom Drinking Team to me.