Proud Boys charged with ‘seditious conspiracy’ related to Capitol riot

[Valin]

The Washington Examiner

Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter

June 06, 2022

The Justice Department announced on Monday that five members of the right-wing Proud Boys group were charged by the Justice Department with “seditious conspiracy” related to their alleged roles in the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.

The Justice Department says that more than 800 defendants have been arrested related to the Capitol riot, including over 250 defendants charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers.

“A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment today charging five members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s former national chairman, with seditious conspiracy and other charges for their actions before and during the breach of the U.S. Capitol,” the DOJ said Monday. “Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.”

(Snip)

“From in and around December 2020, through in and around January 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the defendants, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Enrique Tarrio, and Dominic Pezzola, did knowingly conspire, confederate, and agree, with other persons known and unknown to the grand jury, to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States and by force to prevent, hinder, and delay the execution of any law of the United States," prosecutors announced in a superseding indictment.

DOJ added, “The purpose of the conspiracy was to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force.”

(Snip)

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18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy

 

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; July 24, 1956, ch. 678, § 1, 70 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

 

[Valin]

Here are some notable treason and sedition cases from years past:

HUTAREE MILITIA

The last time U.S. prosecutors brought such a case was in 2010 in an alleged Michigan plot by members of the Hutaree militia to incite an uprising against the government. But a judge ordered acquittals on the sedition conspiracy charges at a 2012 trial, saying prosecutors relied too much on hateful diatribes protected by the First Amendment and didn’t, as required, prove the accused ever had detailed plans for a rebellion. Three members of the militia pleaded guilty to weapons charges.

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PUERTO RICAN NATIONALISTS

Among the last successful convictions for seditious conspiracy charges were in another, now largely forgotten storming of the Capitol building in 1954. Four pro-independence Puerto Rican activists rushed the building and opened fire on the House floor, wounding several representatives. They and more than a dozen others who assisted in the attack were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Oscar Lopez Rivera, a former leader of a Puerto Rican independence group that orchestrated a bombing campaign that left dozens of people dead or maimed in the 1970s and 1980s, spent 35 years in prison for seditious conspiracy before President Barack Obama commuted his sentence in 2017.

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SHEIKH OMAR ABDEL-RAHMAN

Seditious conspiracy law was last successfully used in the 1990s in the prosecution of Islamic militants who plotted to bomb New York City landmarks. An Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, and nine followers were convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy and other charges in a plot to blow up the United Nations, the FBI’s building, and two tunnels and a bridge linking New York and New Jersey. Abdel-Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” argued on appeal that he was never involved in planning actual attacks against the U.S. and his hostile rhetoric was protected free speech. He died in federal prison in 2017.

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TOKYO ROSE

Among the last convictions for treason was American-born Iva Toguri D’Aquino, known as Tokyo Rose during World War II for her anti-American broadcasts. She was convicted in 1949 of “giving aid and comfort” to Japan. She served more than six years of a 10-year sentence before her release. President Gerald Ford pardoned her after reports U.S. authorities pressured some witnesses to lie. Some former prisoners of war in Japan also came forward to confirm that D’Aquino had smuggled food and medicine to them during their capture.

 

Several other Americans of Japanese and German descent were convicted of treason for giving aid and comfort to Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Some also later received pardons or had sentences commuted.

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ADAM GADAHN

The only American charged with treason against the U.S. since the World II era was Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American. His 2006 federal indictment said he gave al-Qaida “aid and comfort ... with intent to betray the United States.” Before he could be put on trial, Gadahn was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Valin]

Something to remember this is going to be held in Washington DC (Unless the defense can win a Change Of Venue)

Does the name Michael Sussmann Ring a bell?