DOJ brings new criminal conspiracy charges in January 6th Capitol attack probe
The Justice Department is not done with their investigation. They have just charged 4 of the Oath Keepers with conspiracy for the January 6 insurrection. These new defendants are Joseph Hackett aka “Ahab”, Jason Dolan aka “Turmoil” and William Isaacs, all from Florida. A fourth new defendant’s name and alleged actions are still redacted. This is the largest case against any of the extremist groups that participated in the pro-Trump attack on January 6. Prosecutors have built the case gradually. The group allegedly brought guns to a hotel in Virginia to back them up on January 6 and communicated during the insurrection.
The Oath Keeper defendants are accused of taking part in the conspiracy as well as entering the Capitol Building, a restricted area. Isaacs allegedly yelled, “The fight’s not over” when the Oath Keepers group had gotten inside the building and waved rioters down the hallway toward the Senate, according to the indictment.
In this new filing, five of the previous defendants now face charges for allegedly deleting their social media and cell phone activity. This is obstruction of justice.
All the Oath Keepers have gone before a district judge in Washington, DC, and all have pled not guilty. The Prosecutors flipped a cooperator who was charged in a separate Capitol riot case. This cooperator had deep ties to the group.
Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader, is still referred to a “Person One” in the court records, which means he has not been charged.
No matter how the Congressional investigation is conducted, the criminal matters will march ahead.
It doesn’t matter if particular people attempted to erase their communications and lionizing pictures of the insurrection. These are fairly silly fools who took their cell phones with them to record their expected triumph at the insurrection. They didn’t seem to understand basic civics about elections and swallowed all the tomfoolery from Trump and pro-Trump airwaves. They still hope to be rescued from their fate.
On Friday, both a grand jury approved the new indictment, and the Department of Justice prosecutors were describing the Oath Keepers Quick Reaction Force (QRF) which allegedly brought guns to a hotel in Virginia “as backup” for the insurrection. The Friday filing described a person who the prosecutors believe to be the organizer of the QRF, a person from North Carolina named “Person Three.” Person Three is not in the four newly charged defendants.
The criminal cases march on, in the name of the United States Government and all of its people.
When the cases come to trial, I expect them to ask for jury trials, hoping that some supporters will be impaneled in the jury. This might be a challenge for the prosecutors as they bring their case. The rightwing media has been calling these insurrectionists Patriots for some time. But they are not patriots if they try to trash the Constitution and the government. This is a government by the people and for the people. They may wish to rule the majority and impose their will on everyone in the United States, but this is a fantasy unless the government falls. I have heard that several defendants are considering pleading insanity and coercion by the media and rightwing politicians. But no one makes anyone tune into rightwing media. While I agree it is insanity, it does not seem to meet the legal definition of the insanity plea.
The insanity rule created a presumption of sanity unless the defense proved “at the time of committing the act, the accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong.”
And if the government falls, all pension checks and social security checks would cease because the government is what backs the currency. The rest of the non-insurrectionist population do not want that to happen. I hope they are convicted for their crimes and go to prison for a good long time.
