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Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted on Monday of conspiracy to attack the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol in the second major trial of right-wing extremists accused of plotting to keep former president Donald Trump in power.
The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Fla., Roberto Minuta of Prosper, Texas, David Moerschel of Punta Gorda, Fla., and Edward Vallejo of Phoenix, Ariz., came weeks after a different jury convicted the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, in the attack the crowd that stopped the certification of the victory of the US President Joe Biden.
It was another major victory for the US Department of Justice, which is also trying to secure sedition convictions against the former Proud Boys leader and four of his friends. The trial against Enrique Tarrio and his lieutenant opened earlier this month in Washington and is expected to last several weeks.
Seditious conspiracy is a rarely prosecuted Civil War-era law that prohibits plotting to overthrow or destroy the government and carries up to 20 years in prison.
The jury deliberated for about 12 hours over three days. The judge did not immediately set a date for sentencing.
Rhodes and other leaders of the Florida-based group were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in a separate trial in November.
Oath Keepers discuss the ‘bloody’ civil war, prosecutors say
The Department of Justice has brought nearly 1,000 connected cases to January 6 and the tally is increasing every week.
In this case, prosecutors told jurors that Oath Keepers leaders Rhodes and extremist groups began shortly after the 2020 election to prepare an armed uprising to keep Trump in power.
The messages show Rhodes and the Oath Keeper discussing the prospect of a “bloody” civil war and the need to keep Biden out of the White House.
“Our democracy is under attack, but for the defendants it’s all they trained for and it’s time to celebrate,” prosecutor Louis Manzo told jurors in closing arguments.
Prosecutors said the Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons and stored them in a Virginia hotel for a team called a “quick reaction force” that could quickly send guns to Washington to support the plot if needed. The weapon was never used.
Oath Keepers provided security, the defense argued
Defense attorneys sought to downplay the violent message as bluster and said the Oath Keepers came to Washington to provide security at events before the riots.
They were arrested in the lack of prosecutors’ evidence that the Oath Keepers had an explicit plan to storm the Capitol before January 6 and told the jurors that the extremists who attacked the Capitol acted spontaneously like thousands of other rioters.
“They left out evidence and picked and chose what they wanted,” said William Lee Shipley, an attorney for Minuta.
Prosecutors argued that while there was no evidence of a plan to attack the Capitol, the Oath Keepers saw the riots as a way to stop and act with a clear opportunity to help Trump stay in power.
Hackett, Moerschel and other Oath Keepers approached the Capitol in a military-style stack formation before entering the building, according to prosecutors. Minuta and his group from the second batch of Oath Keepers clashed with police after heeding Rhodes’ call to race to the Capitol, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Vallejo, a U.S. Army veteran and Rhodes ally, drove from Arizona to prepare for the “QRF” — a quick reaction force — at a hotel outside Washington. Jurors heard an audio recording of Vallejo talking about a “declaration of guerrilla warfare” on the morning of January 6.
Three other Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
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