Four members of the Oath Keeper were found guilty Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in the second major trial of the far-right accused of conspiring to keep President Donald Trump in power by force.
the referee against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Florida; Roberto Mints from Prosper, Texas; David Morchill from Punta Gorda, Florida; And Edward Vallejo of Phoenix comes weeks after the group’s leader, Stuart Rhodes, was convicted by a different jury in the attack that temporarily halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
It’s another major victory for the Department of Justice, which is also seeking a sedition conviction against the former Proud Boys and four associates. The trial of Enrique Tarrio and his associates began earlier this month in Washington, D.C. and is expected to last several weeks.
The Washington, D.C., jury deliberated for 12 hours over three days before returning their guilty verdict on the rarely used charge, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The four were also convicted of two other counts of conspiracy, as well as obstructing an official proceeding: congressional testimony for the 2020 election.
Minotta, Hackett, and Morchill were acquitted on lesser charges.
The judge did not immediately set a date for sentencing. The judge rejected the prosecution’s offer to detain the men pending the issuance of the verdict, considering that they did not pose a danger to escape. They were ordered to remain in house arrest with electronic monitoring.
It was one of the most serious cases raised so far in the wide-ranging Jan. 6 investigation, which continues to grow two years after the riots. The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people in the riot, and the number is rising by the week.
The January 6, 2020 rebellion became the largest investigation ever conducted by the Department of Justice. To learn more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo.
Prosecutors told jurors that Oath Keeper leader Stuart Rhodes and his gang of extremists began preparing an armed insurrection shortly after the 2020 election to keep Trump in power. The messages show Rhodes and the oath-keepers discussing the possibility of a “bloody” civil war and the need to keep Biden out of the White House.
“Our democracy was under attack, but for the defendants it was all they trained for and a time to celebrate,” Attorney General Luis Manzo told the jury in closing arguments.
Prosecutors alleged that the Oath Keepers stored and hid the weapons in a Virginia hotel for so-called “Quick Reaction Force” teams that could quickly dispatch weapons to Washington to support their plot if needed. Weapons were not used.
Florida and Rhodes state chapter president Kelly Meggs was found guilty of conspiracy to sedition in the previous trial, which ended in November. They were the first people in decades to be convicted at trial of a Civil War-era charge. Three other Oath Keepers were acquitted of the charge in this case, but were found guilty of other felonies. Everyone is waiting for the verdict.
Defense attorneys have tried to dismiss the violent messages as mere boasting, saying that the Oath Keepers had come to Washington to provide security in the events leading up to the riots. They took advantage of the plaintiffs’ lack of evidence that the Oath Keepers had a clear plan to storm the Capitol by January 6, telling the jury that the extremists who attacked the Capitol acted as spontaneously as thousands of other rioters.
“They left the evidence and picked and chose what they wanted,” said William Lee Shipley, Minotas attorney.
Prosecutors argued that while there was no evidence specifically outlining a plan to attack the Capitol, the oath guards saw the riot as a means to an end and turned to action at a clear opportunity to help keep Trump in power.
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