On Tuesday, a sedition accusation against the leader and four other Oath Keepers militia members who participated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, will be tried.
To retain Donald Trump in the White House despite losing the election, Stewart Rhodes, the eyepatch-wearing former soldier and Yale Law School graduate who planned a military-style attack on the Capitol, and his supporters are accused of using force against the United States.
The sedition allegation, which carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence and is the strongest yet in the charges of hundreds of people who took part in the January 6 uprising to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election, is the most serious yet.
Four of the eight Oath Keeper members who have been charged with sedition will begin their trials on November 29 along with Rhodes.
The accusations state that Rhodes and his supporters planned to “oppose by force the law transfer of presidential power.”
Following Rhodes’ orders, “they arranged to travel across the nation to enter Washington DC (and) armed themselves with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear,” and carried out the attack.
Of the approximately 870 people indicted in connection with the Capitol attack, the nine Oath Keepers will stand trial for seditious conspiracy first.
The majority of them are accused of breaking into the Capitol without authorization, interfering with a legislative meeting (during which Joe Biden was confirmed as president-elect), and assaulting police officers.
US prosecutors very rarely utilize the sedition accusation. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was the last person to be found guilty of this crime.
Because there was no domestic terrorism statute at the time, the accusation of seditious conspiracy was used to stress Yousef’s desire to harm the US government.
The charge is being utilized in the January 6 case against participants in armed militia organizations who allegedly coordinated with one another to lead the attack.
Proud Boys members, another significant figure from January 6, were also charged with seditious conspiracy in June, although their case has not yet been heard in court.
