Four Oath Keepers found guilty of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Four members of the far-right Oath Keepers group were convicted of seditious conspiracy Monday, joining founder Stewart Rhodes in being found guilty by a jury of plotting to keep President Donald Trump in power by force.

Seditious conspiracy charges are rarely used and even more rarely successful. At Rhodes’s trial only he and Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs were found guilty of the crime, while three associates were convicted of less politically-loaded charges.

Joseph Hackett, 52, ; Roberto Minuta, 38; David Moerschel, 45 and Edward Vallejo, 64, were described by federal prosecutors as armed and dangerous traitors, and by their attorneys as hapless has-beens who stumbled into chaos.

“They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution, but they trampled it,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said in closing arguments. “They ignored the will of the people,” he said, but “had the audacity to claim to be oath-keepers.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/01/23/oathkeepers-verdict-seditious-conspiracy-jan6-guilty/

---

No paywall

[Bev54]

1. Fantastic News!

[2naSalit]

2. K&R!

Now do the suits!

[peppertree]

22. +1

These Oaf Creepers didn't just wake up one day, and decide to attempt a coup.

[MLAA]

26. Exactly!

and Gym Jorden (he is not a suit with that short sleeve shirt ‘look’). 😬

[underpants]

3. Good.

[Scalded Nun]

4. Now this is a great way to start the week!!

[tonekat]

23. Absolutely!

If I can't have clear weather, this news brings some sunshine in!

[GenXer47]

5. these were the guys who stashed the cache of weapons

I love how they planned to paddle these over the river.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I am thinking this or the other group also had/staged "assault vehicles"

(golf carts ) stationed on the other side of one the bridges near the Capitol building.

[PatrickforB]

42. Golf carts? Really? I hadn't heard that. How funny.

Assault vehicles!

[BumRushDaShow]

47. I did actually find a brief mention in the OP article

Hackett and Moerschel traveled to D.C. from Florida with Meggs and followed him into the Capitol at 2:38 p.m. Minuta was in a separate Oath Keeper group providing security for Trump confidant Roger Stone that morning. Stone refused to leave his hotel because the Oath Keepers could not guarantee him access to the presidential stage, according to the testimony. When the riot started, Minuta and the others left Stone and rode hotel golf carts over to the Capitol. They entered around 3:15 p.m. and were pushed out a few minutes later, as Minuta shouted at the officers, “All that’s left is the Second Amendment!”

I remember in some of the early reporting after the insurrection, there was mention of these groups planning to "stage weapons" at various locations outside of the Capitol complex so that they could be quickly retrieved. I also recall something about how they had rented the golf carts - am guessing they settled on those because they were available at a nearby golf course and I think those also have little storage trunks to put stuff (like golf bags which are probably similar in size to rifle bags).



https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/oath-keeper-who-raced-golf-carts-through-the-u-s-capitol-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-will-cooperate-with-feds/

The day before, they had been transporting Roger Stone around in one - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/roger-stone-did-something-wrong/

[SouthernDem4ever]

51. They didn't realize the river was much bigger than the pond back home

in the wood where they live.

[Botany]

6. They can either grow old and or die in prison or they can learn to be chatty

“They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution, but they trampled it,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said in closing arguments. “They ignored the will of the people,” he said, but “had the audacity to claim to be oath-keepers.

[Leghorn21]

16. Here's Minuta, havin himself a fine day hobnobbing with King Ratfucker, too

Last edited Mon Jan 23, 2023, 06:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Bbbbbb BYE, boi 🔐

[Harker]

21. Yes. I see a few field trips in their future.

Roger might lose access to his collection of tiny hats.

[Botany]

25. Let's hope we have a pro active DoJ that goes after all these shits who have sold out America in ...

... order to try to promote a Christo-Fascist right government that will let the minority keep control
of the the majority of Americans. 70 freaking % of Congressional Republican House Members voted
to overthrow our Constitutional Democracy. The rot is deep so make the deals and get these shits
a deal and have them sing.

From inside Congress, the FBI, the Secret Service, Oath Keepers, our Police & Military the MAGAs,
Right Wing Christian Evangelicals, Fox (workswithrussia) News, and so on these people and groups
are real threats to our Nation.

BTW Stone is on tape saying that he didn't care who won the Presidential Election because "they"
were going to claim a victory anyways.

[Harker]

27. I'm optimistic, despite the increasing disdain for DOJ leadership.

There's a Rubik's cube of conspirators to snap into place, and when Merrick Garland spoke of no one being above the law, and DOJ proceeding without fear or favor, I believed him.

I can hear many voices practicing scales offstage...

[Botany]

29. The rot is very deep. Hell, the FBI office* that sandbaged HRC was on the Russian Payroll in 2016

* I betya there is more than one.

[Harker]

30. There's a lot of bad wood underneath the veneer...

I'm ready for the second coming of Joe Valachi.

[Evolve Dammit]

34. Lock this SOB up please.

[trusty elf]

46. ...

[aax]

8. LOCK THEM UP!!!

LOCK THEM UP!!!
LOCK THEM UP!!!
LOCK THEM UP!!!
LOCK THEM UP!!!
LOCK THEM UP!!!

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

[gademocrat7]

10. K&R!

[msfiddlestix]

11. Great news, thanks for posting, but there is a paywall, fyi. Can post info on sentencing, are they

incarcerated now, or will they be on house arrest while awaiting sentencing?

thanks in advance..

[BumRushDaShow]

20. I had put the "no paywall" link in the "comments"

No paywall

There was nothing in the article about sentencing - they normally do that months later and might announce when a sentencing hearing would eventually occur.

I expect they are being held until sentencing regardless given the seriousness of the charges - AND just found the NBC article that indicated that they will be held under "house arrest" until sentencing -

Four Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack

Jan. 23, 2023, 2:38 PM EST / Updated Jan. 23, 2023, 3:25 PM EST
By Daniel Barnes, Liz Brown-Kaiser, Dareh Gregorian and Julia Jester

(snip)

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ordered the four to be placed under 24-hour house arrest with limited exceptions and limitations on internet usage until their sentencing, “notwithstanding the nature of these charges, which are undoubtedly serious.” 

(snip)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/oath-keepers-members-convicted-seditious-conspiracy-rcna66622

[msfiddlestix]

32. I gotcha. thanks these old eyes make a mess of what I read and write sometimes.

I might have to give up participating in discussions if I can't figure out how to use disability features better.

It bugs me that the sentencing is delayed for so long, I really don't understand this. seems rather at the discretion of the judge I guess?

At least some of these cases are finally being tried by juries.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. Don't beat yourself up about it

I know I have had to put the laptop in accessibility mode to get the bigger fonts but then some webpages get screwed up with that so I am adjusting the magnification up or down anyway as needed.

And with respect to separate sentencing and the time lag - that is pretty much standard except for things like plea deals and probably some other crimes with mandatory explicit fines/incarceration, etc. The need for the sentencing hearing is usually to give time for prosecutors & defenders to gather and present aggravating and mitigating factors in order for a judge to decide within the recommended ranges, what to actually mete out as a sentence.

[vlyons]

12. Sow the wind;

reap the whirlwind. I'm curious what their sentences will be. Hopefully just sentences that also serve as a warning to others.

[LudwigPastorius]

13. Did Rhodes testify against them to reduce his sentence?

Can't find any info on this.

[fightforfreedom]

14. There goes Garland doing nothing again.

[SergeStorms]

18. Wake me when he starts...

prosecuting the authors of that treasonous insurection. So far it's only been the supporting cast.

[DENVERPOPS]

31. Agree SS

Many of us having been holding our breath a long long time. First with Mueller, then with Garland, and now the latest appointed prosecutor guy.........can't remember his name.......

The guys getting nailed are purely "low hanging fruit" which is always the case in our judicial system......

Of course, the possibility of prosecuting anyone higher than these guys may be a moot point due to the fact they will all plead not guilty as they have already claimed for years, and if it goes to a jury I fully expect "jury nulification" with at least a few one or two of the jurors being a voter in the group of 70 million who voted for them not once but twice......

[Evolve Dammit]

35. totally agree

[Beastly Boy]

38. So this news is not enough to wake you up for?

My apologies for the rudeness. By all means, go back to sleep and pay no attention to the seditionists being convicted in a court of law.

[GreenWave]

15. Ancient device discovered for possible seditious traitors.

[malthaussen]

17. It's getting to the point where they're gonna run out of foot soldiers...

... and have to either indict the real managers, or close up shop. The middle managers are getting the book thrown at them, it would be so nice if their Congressional running dogs also paid a price.

-- Mal

[Beastly Boy]

39. These are no foot soldiers.

These are insurrection plotters. DOJ convicted nearly 1000 foot soldiers some time ago.

[Vinca]

19. It's time to go after the orange commander.

[AllaN01Bear]

24. yay. the rs will never be able to cloak themselves with and behind the

constitution ,nor any other of our symbols ever again.

[Karma13612]

28. Yes!

[cstanleytech]

36. Frankly I have zero sympathy for any of the people that tried this shit and I

do not for one minute believe their supposed apologies and I am opposed to giving them leniency.

[ProfessorGAC]

55. That, However, Is The New Deflection

That tool that puffed on a cigar with his feet on Pelosi's desk is now claiming his guilty verdict is invalid because his jury wasn't a group of "peers"
I fully expect that same ridiculous argument to be made by these 4 cretins.
"A trial isn't fair until all 12 jurors think just like me."

[Beastly Boy]

37. That's a CONVICTION. Guilty as charged. In the court of law. By a jury of their peers. NOT a report.

Thanks, Garland!

[republianmushroom]

40. like it

When do we start seeing some republican house members
joining these fine republican base members ?

[C0RI0LANUS]

41. Four more from the Basket of Deplorable into

the Bureau of Prisons. Ker-plunk.

[PatrickforB]

43. Little boys with grandiose illusions dressed up in their

war uniforms, pretending to be so-so-tough.

[C0RI0LANUS]

44. They will need their toughness in the FCI.

[Skittles]

45. "hapless has-beens"

[ancianita]

48. Gotta say that compared to all the other convictions on other charges, the sedition charge

'due process" -- from their arrest and charging on November 3 2022, to January 23 -- was pretty darn fast.

Hundreds of those charged have taken over a year to process from charging to conviction.

[BumRushDaShow]

50. "Hundreds of those charged have taken over a year to process from charging to conviction"

That's because most of those charged were not D.C. residents (who had ultimate jurisdiction). So they each had to be positively identified and then cases had to be developed with "probable cause" in the jurisdictions where they resided.

And most of those jurisdictions had "acting" U.S. Attorneys running their offices, in some cases since BEFORE the official transfer of power on January 20, 2021, and most AFTER that date (with some staying on at the request of the President until a replacement could be nominated and confirmed).

Once those non-D.C. district offices finished processing the suspect, the cases were then dumped onto the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (the current "permanent" one, only having been confirmed in November 2021) to further process and either get plea deals or schedule trials.

[ancianita]

53. I hear you and understand the timeline.

However long it takes, it's no doubt been a massive undertaking. We all need to stay appreciative of that.

I was just pleasantly surprised at how fast the case development and conviction happened with Oathkeepers, most of them from different states and jurisdictions, as well.

[BumRushDaShow]

54. I think because not only did they not need to spend a lot of time trying to ID them

they knew they were part of organizations that they had been monitoring for years.

But more importantly, they also had informants embedded in both the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Even with partial info from them, it helps to get a case developed much quicker (especially if any of the informants were wearing wires or managed to have data like texts/chat logs, etc., that may have provided some details on planning).

[ancianita]

56. True, no doubt.

Now there exist at least seven precedents (along with evidence the Jan 6 Comte gathered, and whatever evidence Monaco's DOJ teams acquired) for the Smith team to go forward with charging Trump with US 18, 371 for conspiring to defraud, impair, obstruct & defeat the US.

[BumRushDaShow]

57. I think they are going to need to rope in the next layer up first

I.e., the "management" - the "Capos" and advisors involved in the different aspects of this nightmarish organization.

Stone (Capo in charge of the thug soldiers), Ghouliani (Capo in charge of the Kraken lawyers), Eastman (Capo architect of and point of contact for the Congressional challenges), Clark (Capo-as-DOJ-plant to bolster the false claims), Meadows (Consigliere - monitoring all aspects of the operation and reporting back), etc.

I think this is why the chatter keeps going about getting Meadows to flip/plea bargain because he was apparently aware of all the balls that were in the air, and was reporting back the status. Doing something like that might require granting immunity (and protection).

[ancianita]

59. Yes. That next to the last layer.

Yep, chatter. But by now there likely exists enough of a pattern of behaviors and communications from Meadows to prosecute, and I'm more for charging -- Jack Smith errs on that side -- and less for immunity, especially for as slippery an aider as he. This isn't personal; we need justice at these levels, since Meadows is a Koch guy, as is his whole "freedom" caucus. And I want the oligarch of oligarchs to be shoved back off, and made to stay away from, the First Branch. Bad enough that devil owns so many statehouses.

[BumRushDaShow]

60. At this point, it's not so much a matter of deciding to prosecute

but a matter of distilling it all down to something that a JURY will CONVICT for. The same thing is going on in Fulton County GA with Fani Willis. There is a ton of material that has been gathered and they have to select the strongest and most compelling to present to go with to charge on, with the expectation of going to a jury trial with it,

I think the past and current prosecutions of both the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys will be helpful for how to present info that is digestible enough and solid enough to bat away any defense arguments about simply being bystanders and not having any intent to overthrow the government.

I.e., there needs to be a clear distinction made between what they would argue is a "First Amendment right to petition the government to seek redress of their grievances" and a more nefarious plan to thwart a peaceful transfer of power.

[ancianita]

61. EXACTLY.

Past prosecutions lost that argument, I believe, and got sedition convictions. Upcoming cases' solid evidence will prove the conspiracy side that drove those previous sedition wins. So no immunity deals, imo.

[BumRushDaShow]

62. In order to get individual 1

without what would be a "I had no control over what those people did" defense that would certainly be made, you will need a literal smoking gun in the hand or enough "witnesses" to turn. At least for the "public" evidence we're aware of, the calls to GA provide some.

With respect to Meadows, you have stuff like this - https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/politics/meadows-texts-phil-waldron-seize-voting-machines-election-fraud/index.html

And more succinctly, this pretty much shows his role of Consigliere, how wide-ranging his contacts were, and how he brings in yet another layer of criminals - GOP members of Congress - https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/mark-meadows-exchanged-texts-with-34-members-of-congress-about-plans-to-overturn-the-2020-election

(the above was all part of the J6 Committee final report/document dump)

[ancianita]

63. Yep.

Very cool evidence and links.

Yes, I got the J6 Report on Jan 6, and have read, underlined, side barred, noted and dog eared it.

This suited mob of conspirers, aiders & abetters, and accessories after the fact, are going down. I'm looking for charges to roll out some time after SOTU and through the rest of the year.

If the DOJ could please follow the money and tie Koch to any aiders and abetters in Congress, I could die happy.

[onenote]

58. Again, the timeline for this case is well over a year.

Started with arrest in May 2021. Indictment unsealed in January 2022.

[onenote]

52. You are mistaken about the timeline. It was over a year.

Hackett was first arrested in May 2021. He was named along with several other Oath Keepers (including Elmer Rhodes) in an indictment for seditious conspiracy that was unsealed on January 13, 2022. Originally, all of those named in the indictment were going to be tried together, but it was decided to split the group of defendants into two groups, with Rhodes et al being tried first, followed by the trial of Hacket etc.

The investigation, arrest, indictment and trial took more than a year.

May arrest: https://www.mysuncoast.com/2021/05/31/sarasota-man-facing-changes-jan-capitol-riot/

Announcement of Jan. 2022 indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-oath-keepers-and-10-other-individuals-indicted-federal-court-seditious-conspiracy-and

[Beastly Boy]

49. A lesson to the ignorant: if you plan to claim protection under the US Constitution,

you better read the US Constitution first.