WASHINGTON — Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in the second major far-right trial accused of conspiring to violently keep President Donald Trump in power.
The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Florida; Roberto Minutes from Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel of Punta Gorda, Florida; and Phoenix’s Edward Vallejo comes weeks after another jury convicted the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, of the attack that temporarily halted confirmation of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
It’s another big win for the Justice Department, which is also seeking sedition convictions against the former Proud Boys frontman and four associates. The trial of Enrique Tarrio and his lieutenants began earlier this month in Washington DC and is expected to last several weeks.
The Washington DC jury deliberated for about 12 hours for three days before returning their guilty verdict on the rarely used charge, which carries up to 20 years in prison. The four were also convicted on two other counts of conspiracy, as well as obstructing an official process: congressional certification of the 2020 election.
Minuta, Hackett and Moerschel were cleared of minor charges.
The judge did not immediately set a date for the sentencing. The judge declined the prosecutors’ offer to keep the men locked up while they awaited sentencing, believing they posed no escape risk. They were ordered to remain under house arrest under electronic surveillance.
It was one of the most serious cases yet to surface in the wide-ranging Jan. 6 investigation, which continues to mount two years after the riot. The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people over the riots, and the number is rising by the week.
The January 6, 2020 riot has become the largest investigation ever conducted by the Justice Department. To see more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo.
Prosecutors told jurors that shortly after the 2020 election, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his gang of extremists began preparing for an armed rebellion to keep Trump in power. The messages show Rhodes and the Oath Keepers discussing the prospect 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 had trained for and a time to celebrate,” prosecutor Louis Manzo told the jury in closing arguments.
Prosecutors claimed the Oath Keepers stored guns and hid them in a Virginia hotel for so-called “Rapid Reaction Force” teams who could quickly send guns to Washington if needed to aid in their conspiracy. The guns were never used.
Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a previous trial that ended in November. They were the first people in decades to be found guilty in the trial on Civil War-era charges. Three other Oath Keepers were acquitted of the charge but found guilty of other crimes. Everyone is waiting for their conviction.
Defense attorneys tried to dismiss the violent messages as mere boasting, saying the Oath Keepers had come to Washington to provide security at events ahead of the riots. Taking advantage of prosecutors’ lack of evidence that the Oath Keepers had an explicit plan to storm the Capitol by Jan. 6, they told the jury that the extremists who attacked the Capitol acted spontaneously like thousands of other rioters had.
“They left evidence and chose and chose what they wanted,” said William Lee Shipley, an attorney for Minuta.
Prosecutors argued that while there is no evidence of a plan to attack the Capitol, the Oath Keepers viewed the uprising as a means to an end and took action in an apparent opportunity to keep Trump in power.