By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters). – The U.S. prosecutors have brought sedition cases against 11 individuals who are linked to a far left militia and took part the 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. Legal experts believe that they may be able to get convictions.

An indictment https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1462481/download was released on Thursday against the founder of Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-arrests-far-right-militia-group-oath-keepers-leader-jan-6-probe-nyt-2022-01-13, and 10 purported members of the group, accusing them of conspiring to forcefully oppose the transfer of power between then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, to his successor, Democrat Joe Biden.

A conspiracy to seditious is defined as “to overthrow or put down the United States government”; the U.S. Department of Justice was reluctant to file such charges in part due the fact that it lost a case twelve years back, according to a former lawyer for the United States government.

Alan Rozenshtein a former Justice Department national security attorney who is now an instructor at the University of Minnesota Law School said the indictment regarding the attack on Jan. 6, 2009, “is thorough and rigorous”.

Rozenshtein stated that “I don’t believe there is anything the defendants could say here.” This is the classic definition of seditious conspiracies. “If this isn’t seditious conspiracy, then what is?”

After Trump’s fiery speech in which he claimed that the November 2020 election loss was due to widespread fraud, Trump supporters stormed the building and brought the sedition charges against them. U.S. prosecutors have brought criminal charges against at least 725 people https://amers2.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/web/Apps/NewsServices/mediaProxy?apiKey=6d416f26-7b24-4f31-beb6-1b5aa0f3fafb&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgraphics.reuters.com%2FJAN-CHARGES%2FJAN6-CHARGES%2Fxmpjobknrvr%2FJAN6-CHARGES.jpg linked to the riot.

The charges of seditious conspiracy were brought against the perpetrators one year and one week after the attack. This was amid concerns from advocates and Democrats that some Justice Department officials had not been prompt enough to bring criminal charges against those who attempted violence or stormed the building.

Oath Keepers is an informal group that advocates for their rights and focuses on recruiting former and current members of the military and emergency services.

“STACK” ATTACK

The indictment stated that members of this group marched up Capitol stairs on Jan. 6, 2021 wearing military gear and a “stack”, formation. The indictment stated that nine of the eleven people were facing criminal charges.

“We won’t be able to get through all of this without civil war. Too late. Prepare your mind, body and spirit,” Rhodes said in a November 5, 2020, Signal message, according to prosecutors https://www.reuters.com/world/us/a-bloody-desperate-fight-us-prosecutors-release-oath-keepers-communications-2022-01-13.

The two men stated that Rhodes, in December 2020, wrote about Biden’s win and the Jan. 6 certification that “there is not a standard political or legal route out of this”.

Amy Cooter, an expert on U.S. militia movements and a lecturer at Vanderbilt University, said: “It’s important to reserve seditious conspiracy for serious cases, and I personally think this is one.”

Rozenshtein stated that federal prosecutors had to take note of a 2010 failed prosecution against the Hutaree Christian Nationalist Militia, which was allegedly a Christian militia.

The Hutaree members were accused of conspiring to murder a Michigan officer, then hiding from his colleagues as they gathered at the funeral. The seditious conspiracy charge was dropped because prosecutors failed to show that militia members did anything other than talk about hatred of authority.

Experts in legal analysis said the high profile outcome highlighted a common problem in seditious conspiracies cases: the possibility that the charges could compromise the wide-ranging free speech rights afforded under the U.S. Constitution.

In September 2020 amid civil unrest William Barr, the then-U.S. AG, urged federal prosecutors that they consider seditious conspiracy cases against anyone who was involved in violence at antipolice protests. This move was immediately criticized by civil liberties groups, who felt that the statute of seditious conspiracy should be reserved for grave threats to U.S. Democracy.

According to lawyers and researchers in extremism, the Justice Department appeared to have carefully reviewed the Oath Keepers Indictment. It may even have used cooperating witness to make a stronger case that they were trying to overthrow the government.

The day following the Jan. 6 riots, one police officer was killed fighting rioters. Four others who had been guarding the Capitol died from suicide. The four victims of the riots also lost their lives, with one woman being shot in the head by a cop while she tried to climb out of a broken window. The hours-long attack left 140 injured police officers.

Joshua Braver of the University of Wisconsin Law School stated that the government had a “strong case against” the Oath Keepers. Contrary to the Hutaree the OathKeepers “executed” their true agreement to prevent peaceful power transfer.