11 members of the right wing militia group.
The oath keepers including their leader Stewart Rhodes have been arrested and
charged in federal court with seditious conspiracy
relating to the January sixth riots.
Now this is a big deal ,because these are as far as we know and
to date the harshest charges against capitol rioters.
Most of them as we've shared with you in previous stories have actually
gotten off pretty easy.
There charges have been lessened.
They've skirted any jail time, but this is an instance where there was just so
much evidence in regard to the planning that took place prior to January six.
That prosecutors were able to charge them with seditious conspiracy.
The new indictment alleges that the head of the oath keeper Stewart Rhodes and
his co conspirators engaged in a conspiracy.
To oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force by preventing
hindering or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power.
Now, Rhodes admitted that he was at the riot, but
he claims that he didn't enter the capitol building.
That doesn't even matter because court filings revealed that the oath
keepers had meticulously planned the riot before the events, on January 6th.
The latest court filings reveal oath keeper Thomas caldwell,
who was arrested in January,
claimed to take a reconnaissance trip to Washington DC, before January six.
The indictment also surfaces previously unknown communications roads is alleged,
to have sent that prosecutors say encourage
the use of force to oppose the lawful transfer of power.
I want to give you a few examples of the messages.
So this is one example of evidence that they're using against
the oath keepers here in one message.
They right, we aren't going through this,
we aren't going through this without civil war too late for that.
Prepare your mind, body and spirit ,Rhodes allegedly said in a November 5,
2020 signaled message, in December roads according to the indictment
wrote of the Electoral College certification.
That quote, there is no standard political or legal way out of this,
so if you can't do it legally or politically, how would you do it?
I mean obviously they tried to overturned the results of the election
by force over the next two days.
Rhodes spent $5,000 on firearms and gun equipment,
the week before he bought two night vision devices and a weapon sight for $7,000.
I don't see a lot of economic anxiety with these people.
Prosecutors said, roads also held a meeting with other oath keepers leaders.
In which he outlined a plan to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power,
including preparations for the use of force and
urge those listening to participate.
There's more, but let me just say, there's been a lot of nonsense about like no,
this was all really just FBI entrapment or an FBI plot.
This ain't an FBI plot.
Seems like these idiots, had quite a quite a paper
trail indicating what they're planning process was and
what their intentions were.
>> Sorry.
No look freaking, I've just been thinking about this name,
the oath keepers and I just think about like King Arthur.
And the round table and like the idea that you would name your group
of bandits after, something that's ridiculous, it's crazy.
And again, the part about the FBI stuff, I mentioned this the other day,
they do have a history of entrapping people.
Like you can go to Cointelpro ,Black panthers,
countless number of fake Islamist terrorists that they've done in the past.
Like that they do have a track record of that, but
that doesn't mean the FBI needs to be involved.
If some hayseeds get riled up and they want to storm the capitol,
we don't need the FBI for that.
They do that plenty on their own.
I just hope these guys get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, right?
Whatever we have on the books to get these guys, we don't need to go and be above and
beyond that.
But you do the crime, you should do the time.
It's pretty simple for me.
I don't get all bent up out of shape about how idiotic these people are,
the cops caught you ,put them in jail now.
>> Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that,
I mean I don't want anyone to be treated inhumanely.
You got to be consistent,if you see abuses, particularly human rights
abuses within our justice system, within our intelligence community.
You got to be consistent and
not apply two different standards based on who we're dealing with here.
But with that said, it appears that there is sufficient evidence,
to not only bring these charges, but to also convict these individuals.
I don't know if these convictions would end up serving as any kind of deterrent.
I do think that there is a problem in the country with right wing extremism.
And it has gone unchecked for a long, long time and, it's gone unchecked
with the help of democrats who have easily gotten intimidated by right wingers.
Who demand an end to any kind of investigation or
any kind of study into right wing extremism in the country.
But it is a problem.
And it's particularly terrifying,
when you have an increasing number of Republican lawmakers, lying to
the public day in and day out about how elections are allegedly being rigged.
Or stolen and all of this nonsense.
And of course, you look at what the facts are on the ground and
the the fact of the matter is.
With the gerrymandering that's taking place with voter suppression bills
that have passed in states like Georgia and Texas.
If you want to talk about rigging or giving one political party an upper hand.
It's definitely the Republican Party