(PatriotWise.com)- Last week, the Biden Justice Department indicted the leader of the Oath Keepers and other members on charges of sedition for their involvement in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
After a year of indicting people on penny-ante charges like “parading” and “trespassing,” the timing of the DOJ’s first sedition charges is seen by some as highly suspect. For a year, critics have noted that this is a “seditious insurrection” where nobody was charged with “insurrection” or “sedition.” And suddenly, well, lookie here! The DOJ charges some people with sedition. What a coinkidink.
On Thursday, the DOJ announced seditious conspiracy charges have been filed against eleven defendants, including Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III. In its indictment, the Justice Department alleges a group of 19 Oath Keepers used military “stack” formation to enter the Capitol on January 6. It alleges Rhodes spent thousands of dollars on weapons both before and after January 6 and coordinated with a “quick reaction force” located in Virginia that would allegedly await orders to bring the weapons into DC.
Prosecutors claim in the weeks between the November 2020 election and January 6, Rhodes and his co-conspirators were in constant contact discussing how to prevent Joe Biden from taking office.
The complaint includes an encrypted group message from November 2020 in which Rhodes told other Oath Keepers that the only way through it was with a civil war, and urged them to “prepare your mind, body, spirit.”
Prosecutions for seditious conspiracy are rare. In the early 20th century, such charges were primarily brought against socialists, anarchists, and anti-war activists. The charges can be difficult to prove and are often challenged on First Amendment grounds.
Of course, the Biden Justice Department is probably banking on conviction in this particular case, given that potential jurors have been prejudiced by a full year of the media’s false framing and the Democrats’ over-the-top rhetoric on this 3-hour riot.
What remains unclear, however, is why Rhodes was left alone by the FBI for an entire year before indicting him on sedition.
