Serious question

[malaise]

can domestic terrorists who have declared war on the United States be charged for treason?

[onecaliberal]

1. Very GOOD question. Asking for a country.

[napi21]

2. Definition of treason:

Definition of treason
1: the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family
2: the betrayal of a trust : TREACHERY

It looks like the answer is yes.

[malaise]

5. That's what I thought

So when you invade Congress to overthrow the Presidential election result. When your intent is to kill anyone in your way, you are guilty of treason.

Thank you

[tritsofme]

13. You might be surprised to find that Merriam Webster and federal law differ

in how they define treason...

[soothsayer]

3. Think so, that's why Drumpf's return of the firing squad was high irony

[rsdsharp]

6. Death is not the only potential penalty for treason.

18 USC §2381.
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

[rsdsharp]

4. Treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution.

Article III, Section 3, Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

[House of Roberts]

11. The founders had no concept of video evidence as we have now.

Is everyone who watches a video now qualified as a witness?

[rsdsharp]

12. Video isn't testimony, so no.

[brush]

7. I think you're on to something.What takes sedition over the edge to treason?

Some say for it to be treason the nation has to be at war and the traitor gives aid and comfort to the enemy and/or goes over to fight with the enemy.

But if one declares war against one's own country, that seems to qualify to me as being a traitor.

[malaise]

9. Well some of them say it is civil war

I ask because of those terrorists who actually wore civil war shirts

[UpInArms]

8. More likely is Sedition

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.)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384

[Mr.Bill]

10. Unfortunately this country

has a history of building monuments to people who commit treason, not putting them in jail.

[Irish_Dem]

14. They even have their own flag.

[brush]

15. And until very recently statues in the Capitol Building.

Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2021, 01:10 AM - Edit history (1)

There arenmaybe still some there that haven't been taken down. We can thank BLM for the removals all over the country.

But about the country having a history of not holding traitors to account, just look at how the slave holders were given reparations and the enslaved people didn't get a dime after working unpaid, dawn-t-dusk for centuries, the the highest profile traitor, Robert E. Lee wasn't hanged, was allowed to go back to his estate and become a university president, reconstruction ended and traitors/KKK took over the South again and Jim Crow, for-sale, black prison labor and share cropping (essentially slavery all over again) lasted for another hundred years and the nation still struggles with white supremacy.

[Irish_Dem]

16. It looks like in hindsight the Civil War never ended.

[brush]

17. Quite, in many ways.