to cover it then Lisa Desjardins
.
Thank you.
Our other major story tonight is
a federal grand jury has
convicted the founder of the
oath keepers militia, Stuart
rose, of seditious conspiracy in
the January 6 the attack on the
U.S. Capitol.
A second defendant was also
found guilty and three others
were acquitted.
Mary Mccord is the director of
the institute for constitutional
advocacy and protection.
She is a former justice
department official.
She monitored the trial in
Washington, D.C. And she joins
us now.
Before I ask you about this
verdict, remind us who Stuart
rose is and what are the oath
keepers?
Lisa: -- >> Stewart Rhodes is
the self-proclaimed leader of
the oath keepers.
This organization has been
around since about 2009.
He and others who were part of
this organization attended other
standoffs against the federal
government such as the standoff
in bunker hill, Nevada, back in
2015, I believe it was, 2014.
And other standoffs out west.
Stewart, particularly in these
last several years, has been
very vocal and wanting to come
to the defense of president
trump initially, should he have
been impeached and removed from
office.
Stewart Rhodes tweeted about the
president only needing to
collect the oath keepers and
they would ensure he was not
removed from office.
He continued with that type of
rhetoric and planning throughout
2020 and 2021 as the stop the
steal movement gained momentum
and the jury has agreed that he
was involved in a seditious
conspiracy with other oath
keepers to actually use force or
violence to prevent the
execution of laws of the united
States, the counting of the
electoral college votes.
Judy: Mary, that is not a
verdict we hear about very
often.
Mary: As you noted, it is not
charged particularly often and
it is -- it has not always been
successful in the past and that
is sometimes because it has been
charged where what was conspired
to happen never actually
happened and I think one of the
things that made this perhaps an
easier case for the jury was not
just that there was overwhelming
evidence of the planning to do
exactly what ended up happening
to use force and violence to
prevent the counting of the
electoral college votes but it
also actually happened.
They did use force and violence
to hinder and delay and prevent
the counting of the electoral
college votes.
It was not ultimately successful
in overturning the results in
the election that it delayed it
by a number of hours so a jury
did not have to wonder what they
have really made good on their
conspiracy?
The jury can see it with their
own eyes and hear with their own
ears that Stewart Rhodes and
other members of the oath
keepers did make good on that
conspiracy.
Judy: We know other defendants
coming up to trial.
Does this have significance for
those cases?
Mary: Absolutely.
With all of these cases coming
out of January 6, I think they
have looked to see how others
fared at trial and so far, those
who have gone to trial on
felonies have been found guilty.
Not every member of this mass
trial, not all of the five who
were charged and tried together
were found guilty of seditious
conspiracy, but all five were
found guilty of some offenses.
All five were found guilty of
obstructing an official
proceeding which carries the
same penalty as seditious
conspiracy, up to 20 years in
prison.
Very serious charges, very
important verdict, and it is
going to put the writing on the
wall for others who face this
charge.
Judy: Mary Mccord analyzing for
us this verdict in the case of
Stewart Rhodes.
Mary, thank you so much.
Mary: It's my pleasure.
♪♪