DOJ Charges Oath Keepers With Seditious Conspiracy. What About Arizona’s Insurrectionist Oath Keeper, Rep. Mark Finchem?

Last week the Department of Justice finally got around to filing the first seditious conspiracy charges for the MAGA/QAnon seditious insurrection. The Department of Justice continues to focus on Donald Trump’s private militia of thugs culled from the alt-right domestic terrorist organizations. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes charged with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 Capitol riot:

Stewart Rhodes — founder and leader of the extremist group Oath Keepers — was arrested Thursday on a charge of seditious conspiracy, accused of guiding a months-long effort to unleash politically motivated violence to prevent the swearing-in of President Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The 56-year-old, who was at the Capitol that day but has said he did not enter the building, is the most high-profile person charged in the investigation so far. The indictment filed against Rhodes and 10 other Oath Keepers or associates marks the first time the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy has been leveled in connection with the wide-ranging Jan. 6 probe.

“Rhodes and certain co-conspirators … planned to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power by January 20, 2021, which included multiple ways to deploy force,” the indictment reads. “They coordinated travel across the country to enter Washington, D.C., equipped themselves with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear, and were prepared to answer Rhodes’ call to take up arms at Rhodes’ direction.”

Most of the individuals facing the seditious conspiracy charges were arrested previously, but one, 63-year-old Edward Vallejo of Phoenix, is also a new defendant in the case. Officials said Rhodes was arrested Thursday morning in Little Elm, Tex., and Vallejo was taken into custody in Phoenix.

The most damaging evidence in the 48-page, 17-count indictment comes from the defendants’ own words, often shared in the encrypted messaging app Signal. The indictment alleges that a core group of Rhodes’s most strident adherents planned for and participated in obstructing Congress on the day lawmakers certified Biden’s 2020 election victory.

According to the indictment, the plotting for violence began just after Biden won the election.

On Nov. 5, Rhodes told an invitation-only message group of Oath Keepers leaders: “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit,” Five days later, he published a call to action titled, “WHAT WE THE PEOPLE MUST DO,” suggesting his organization follow the example of an anti-government uprising in Serbia, the court filing says.

On Christmas Day in 2020, Rhodes sent a message to a similar group, saying he doubted Congress would keep Trump in the White House. The president had spent weeks making unfounded allegations of election fraud and pressing state election officials to pursue those allegations.

“The only chance we/he has is if we scare the s— out of them and convince them it will be torches and pitchforks time. … But I don’t think they will listen,” Rhodes wrote.
Six days later, on New Year’s Eve, he sent a message in an encrypted group chat to other Oath Keeper leaders, saying, “There is no standard political or legal way out of this.”

* * *

Rhodes and other Oath Keepers have argued their mission was to provide personal protection for, among others, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone [at the coup plotters “command center” at the Willard hotel.] A number of the individuals charged as part of the alleged Oath Keeper conspiracy were involved in guarding Stone in the days and hours leading up to the attack on Congress. See earlier post, Get Me Roger Stone – For Seditious Conspiracy Against The U.S.; Seth Abramson reports, “Roger Stone wasn’t where he told America he was on January 6th, which is why he keeps changing his story about his stay at the Willard Hotel—where Trump’s secret war room was.” Roger Stone Keeps Lying About the Willard Hotel—and Now We Know Why.

Stone has not [yet] been charged with any wrongdoing – but he did plead the Fifth Amendment aginst self-incrimination when he was called to testify before the January 6 Committee. Roger Stone appears before Jan. 6 panel and pleads the Fifth.

Reminder: In 2016, Donald Trump said “The mob takes the Fifth”… “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

An earlier indictment charged 19 alleged Oath Keepers adherents with conspiracy and aiding and abetting the obstruction of Congress. Two of them have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators [this is likely where they got the info to indict Rhodes]. The rest pleaded not guilty and are preparing for upcoming trials.

In one of three new indictments unsealed Thursday, Rhodes and 10 others were charged with seditious conspiracy, a charge related to the use of violence to hinder the execution of federal law and punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Seven others, who are not alleged to be ringleaders or organizers, remain charged with conspiracy and obstruction of Congress. The conspiracy charge against one individual, Jonathan Walden, 57, of Birmingham, Ala., was dropped, though he still faces other charges.

In splitting up the largest charged case into smaller groups of defendants, prosecutors effectively drew a distinction between two alleged conspiracies: one by Oath Keepers associates who worked together and breached the Capitol that day with angry Trump supporters, as initially charged; and a second, allegedly led by Rhodes, to thwart the results of the election and the transfer of power, starting immediately after the 2020 presidential election.

The defendants who have already pleaded guilty acknowledged they were among a group that forced entry through the Capitol’s East Rotunda doors after marching single-file in tight formation up the steps wearing camouflage vests, helmets, goggles and Oath Keepers insignia.

Some defendants also admitted to stashing guns in a nearby Arlington, Va., hotel for possible use by what they called a “quick reaction force.”

In an interview with The Washington Post last February, Rhodes acknowledged that effort, saying the quick-reaction force was “only if the president calls us up.”

Say what now? Donald Trump has a private militia of thugs culled from the alt-right domestic terrorist organizations. All 50 states prohibit “militia extremists” and paramilitary activities. The constitutions of 48 states require the military to be under the authority of the government. This means private citizens do not have the authority to organize in a military-style fashion. Twenty-nine states also don’t allow private military-like activities such as parading or conducting drills in public using firearms.

The seditious conspiracy charges blew up the Trump fascist propaganda media’s favorite talking point for the past year.

Aaron Blake at the Washington Post: Fox News and the right pitched the lack of sedition charges as proof Jan. 6 wasn’t an insurrection. Now what?

Jonathan Chait at New York magazine: RIP ‘No January 6 Sedition Charges,’ the Right’s Favorite Trump Defense.

Bess Levinson at Vanity Fair: That Whole Not-An-Insurrection Business Really Blew Up In Fox News’ Face.

The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah bid farewell to the narrative put forward by Fox News about the January 6 insurrection.

RIP to the "no sedition charges" talking point, 2021-2022 pic.twitter.com/1Bxgj9wsTC

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 14, 2022

Ellen Ioanes at Vox explains, How seditious conspiracy charges change the January 6 narrative (excerpt):

Thursday’s indictments are the first seditious conspiracy charges in the investigation so far, and the first the Justice Department has brought in more than a decade. Seditious conspiracy isn’t the same as treason, but it’s also not terribly far off; as former federal prosecutor Laurence Tribe wrote for NBC News on Saturday, the “crime is, in effect, treason’s sibling.”

Specifically, seditious conspiracy occurs when two or more people work together to plan to overthrow the government or prevent the execution of its laws.

In the case against Rhodes and his alleged co-conspirators, the government presented evidence in the charging documents that shortly after the November 3, 2020, election Rhodes told his followers to, “Prepare your mind, body, and spirit” because, “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war.” In December, Rhodes promised a “bloody, massively bloody revolution” should a peaceful transfer of power occur, and in the lead-up to the Capitol riot purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of weapons, ammunition, and related tactical gear.

Other defendants in the case are alleged to have set up paramilitary training groups, and created private Signal groups to discuss their operations, including procuring weapons and establishing a quick reaction force outside the DC area to bring in additional insurrectionists and weapons.

The new indictments are a significant step up from previous charges in the case, which range in seriousness from disorderly conduct to obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, and have so far resulted in sentences up to 41 months in prison. In comparison, seditious conspiracy carries a potential sentence of 20 years in prison.

The indictment is “major news in [the] effort to hold extremists accountable for their role in #Jan6 insurrection,” the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-government desk told Vox via email. “January 6th was a culmination of years of poor behavior on Rhodes [sic] part. It felt like this was always where he and Oath Keepers were headed, but many of us had hoped that we could have prevented it.”

Seditious conspiracy prosecutions are rare and difficult

Seditious conspiracy charges are rare — so rare that, as the SPLC points out, this is just the fourth time in the past 80 years that the statute has been used against right-wing extremists in the US.

This means the stakes for the Justice Department’s prosecution of Rhodes and his cohort are high, even as lawmakers in Congress continue to seek accountability for January 6 along different avenues. “It’s that significant of a moment,” the SPLC told Vox.

According to a 1993 case, United States v. Lee, proof of a conspiracy rests on establishing that everyone in the conspiracy shares “a ‘unity of purpose,’ the intent to achieve a common goal, and an agreement to work toward that goal”; previous seditious conspiracy cases have failed in part because the government failed to prove that unity, or to establish exactly what defendants were planning to do.

“Seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers will seek to show that Jan 6 was not just a ‘protest’ … but an organized and pre-planned [attack] on American democracy,” Belew tweeted. “The stakes are high, but there are a lot more tools today than existed in 1987-88: an FBI aware of and willing to confront white power and militant right violence; a DOD aware of the problem and taking action; hundreds of journalists telling better and more complete stories.”

In fact — and perhaps in foreshadowing of Thursday’s indictments — the DOJ announced last week it was establishing a unit dedicated to investigating and prosecuting domestic terrorism, shortly after the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack.

“We have seen a growing threat from those who are motivated by racial animus, as well as those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told lawmakers.

Thursday’s indictment, however, could help combat that threat. Jonathon Moseley, an attorney for Stewart Rhodes and his co-defendant Kelly Meggs, told Vox in a phone interview that “the Oath Keepers in general have been pretty much stalled in any of their operations during this whole year.”

“So a lot is going to depend on how the trial goes, what the outcome is. If they’re found guilty, they’re going to be sort of a pariah … so I think a lot is at stake in terms of the viability of the organization and its movement,” Moseley said.

The indictment could also affect the ability of extremist groups to plan an attack like the Capitol riot, Michael Edison Hayden, a SPLC spokesperson and senior investigative reporter, told Vox.

“Extremists are also paying close attention to the use of Signal” — an encrypted messaging app — “in making this arrest,” Hayden said. “So many far-right figures are perpetually chasing an online space to plan in secret and Signal’s presence in Rhodes’ indictment is a very clear warning sign that they don’t have any great options left. It’s an arrest that will likely inspire quite a bit of paranoia.”

What about Arizona’s own self-described Oath Keeper, Rep. Mark Finchem, who was at the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6?

Phoenix New Times background reports, From Charlottesville to Oath Keepers, Rep. Mark Finchem Is a Fringe Lawmaker (2019); Rep. Mark Finchem Worked With Anti-Government Extremists, Emails Show (2020); Mark Finchem Planned Jan. 6 D.C. Visit With Right-Wing Activist Ali Alexander (2021); Arizona Lawmaker Mark Finchem Struggles to Keep His Capitol Riot Story Straight (2021).

The Arizona Mirror adds,There wouldn’t have been a #StopTheSteal campaign in Arizona without Mark Finchem (2021); Mark Finchem was much closer to the Jan. 6 insurrection than he claimed (2021).

Arizona’s insurrectionist Oath Keeper was a featured speaker at Donald Trump’s Big Lie Palooza in Florence on Saturday. Here is just some of what this QAnon-loving conspiracy theorist had to say. Pinal politicians give fiery speeches at Trump rally:

[Election Denier Finchem] claimed that Trump had won the 2020 election.

“We know it and they know it,” Finchem said, referring to Democrats.

Finchem said the election bills proposed for this year’s legislative session would make the entire election process and processing of ballots more transparent. He called for mandatory audits of every election and making images of ballots available online to the public so voters could check their own ballots.

He also called on Trump supporters to get involved in the election process and volunteer to be precinct committeemen and poll workers.

Finchem also said he was hoping to one day set aside the results of the 2020 election in Arizona, which he said was fatally flawed and should be set aside by the Arizona Legislature.

He claimed that the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows legislatures to set aside election results that are fatally flawed.

“This is how the people get justice,” Finchem said, referring to possible changes in Arizona election laws. He pledged to be the “most transparent candidate” in the race for Arizona secretary of state.

This whole “decertification” of the 2020 Election is not an actual thing. These people are deeply delusional and dangerous. They are a violent cult.

Mehdi Hassan sitting in for Chris Hayes on MSNBC Monday night aired this report on Arizona’s insurrectionist Oath Keeper.