Big news coming out of the Department of Justice regarding January 6th. Official SEDITION charges have come down and the people arrested are big: Leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 others have been arrested and charged with Seditious Conspiracy. The talking point from the right that no one had been charged with sedition are officially gone.
Here is the DOJ statement outlining the indictment:
This is big, folks:
The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021. Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, Rhodes and various co-conspirators coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification of the electoral college vote, the indictment alleges. Rhodes and several co-conspirators made plans to bring weapons to the area to support the operation. The co-conspirators then traveled across the country to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in early January 2021.
Elie Honig joined CNN to discuss this breaking news:
HONIG: Let this put to rest the myth making and the revisionist history and the outright denialism around January 6th. I mean, it's laid out there in black and white by the Justice Department with, by the way, quite strong proof to back it up laid out in the indictment, including quoted electronic communications. This indictment, when you read it, it is clear this was an organized effort. This was an effort that was organized not on the spot but for days and weeks in advance. There were elements of weaponry, of armaments, of tactical movements, and again the group that was putting this all together or one of the groups that was putting this all together was the Oath Keepers. We know who they are. That is a domestic extremist group. These are facts. The Justice Department lays them out very clearly in the indictment and that's why this is such a high-impact charge.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, for some of those on Capitol Hill who have tried to whitewash what happened that day and talk about what they claim was spontaneous, we're learning from this indictment, the allegation that Stewart Rhodes wrote this. Quote, we aren't getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, and spirit. Elie, you talked about how the DOJ was pumping the brakes on a seditious conspiracy charge to make sure they could make the case. Were they holding it specifically for Rhodes and Vallejo and these others or they were holding off on charging anyone for this until they had this level of proof?
They are facing 20 years in prison.
Twitter had thoughts:
If you want to read the entire indictment, here is a thread:
Keep going, AG Garland.
