HEY! Merrick Garland Charges Oath Keepers With Seditious Conspiracy To Overthrow The Government In Capitol Riot!

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL AN INDICTMENT.

The Justice Department came out swinging this afternoon, leveling an indictment for seditious conspiracy against 11 members of the Oath Keepers, including head Oaf Stewart Rhodes. According to the DOJ, the defendants conspired to "oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power." So, not so much with that bullshit they were flogging about descending on DC to be Roger Stone's body guards.

The indictment alleges that the defendants assembled an "arsenal" of guns,which they stored at a Comfort Inn in Arlington guarded by a "Quick Reaction Force" of militia members, ready to rush into the Capitol if their plot to overthrow the government looked like it might work. Because of DC's strict gun laws, they only brought in the legal stuff, "including knives, batons, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection and radio equipment."

They then marched on Capitol in a stack formation, which is kinda strong evidence that somebody conspired with somebody to do something . Plus there's the whole business of them wearing damn uniforms.

At approximately 2: 30 p.m., as detailed in the indictment, [Joseph] Hackett, [Kenneth] Harrelson, [Kelly] Meggs, [David] Moerschel and [Jessica] Watkins, and other Oath Keepers and affiliates – many wearing paramilitary clothing and patches with the Oath Keepers name, logo, and insignia – marched in a “stack” formation up the east steps of the Capitol, joined a mob, and made their way into the Capitol. Later, another group of Oath Keepers and associates, including [Joshua] James, [Roberto] Minuta, and [Brian] Ulrich, formed a second “stack” and breached the Capitol grounds, marching from the west side to the east side of the Capitol building and up the east stairs and into the building.

While certain Oath Keepers members and affiliates breached the Capitol grounds and building, others remained stationed just outside of the city in quick reaction force (QRF) teams. According to the indictment, the QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. The indictment alleges that the teams were coordinated, in part, by [Thomas] Caldwell and [Edward] Vallejo.

The government has got its hands on a mountain of Signal messages — presumably from one of the witnesses who flipped, not because they broke the encryption — replete with references to "civil war" and "unconventional warfare" and the upcoming "bloody fight" and a "bloody, massively bloody revolution."

Luckily Rhodes went to Yale Law School, so he knew that the way to defeat government snoopers was to attach a photo of his handwritten instructions with "messages in cursive to eliminate digital reads." Which is funny, like the indictment's reference to conspirators bobbing and weaving through DC traffic in golf carts trying to get to the Capitol. But not really FUNNY HAHA, because these people had a fuckton of guns and ammo, and they planned to bring it in over the Potomac and in cars, and they intended to kill a whole lot of people.

As for the whole "sedition" thing, they very clearly intended to overthrow the government. That dumb fucking idiot Rhodes didn't even use cursive when he messaged the entire "Leadership Channel" that "Pence is doing nothing. As I predicted."

"All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything," he moaned over the president's failure to send in the army to do a coup. "So patriots are taking it into their own hands. They've had enough."

And even after getting their asses unceremoniously handed to them on January 6, Rhodes spent thousands more on weaponry, vowing that there would be a "civil war" on January 20 if Biden was inaugurated.

But now he is in jail, along with the rest of his treasonous piece of shit buddies.

OTOH, half the country thinks the election was stolen and maybe those tourist protesters had a point, so perhaps we shouldn't be so hasty about declaring victory just yet.

[ Justice.gov ]

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