Other top members of the group have already be arrested by the FBI, which the Justice Dept. is charging people for the overrun of the Capitol Building along with destruction of property and threats to the well being of lawmakers and the Vice President of the United States, a year ago….
The Oath Keeper leader, Stewart Rhodes, is charged with making plans to keep ex-President Trump in office after it was clear he lost the election….
Most of those individuals were previously arrested, but one, 63-year-old Edward Vallejo of Phoenix, is also facing charges as part of the case against the Oath Keepers for the first time. Officials said Rhodes was arrested this morning in Little Elm, Tex., and Vallejo was taken into custody in Phoenix.
A federal grand jury in the District leveled the new charges focusing on what prosecutors say is a core group of Oath Keepers adherents who allegedly planned for and participated in obstructing Congress on the day lawmakers certified President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The indictments unsealed Thursday mark the first time anyone has faced charges of seditious conspiracy for the Jan. 6 attacks, though prosecutors have long signaled they were considering using that rarely applied section of federal law….
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The attack on the Capitol occurred as lawmakers were gathered there to formally confirm Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, amid repeated and unfounded allegations of widespread election fraud and as then-President Donald Trump was urging his supporters to “stop the steal.”
The certification of the election results was disrupted by the pro-Trump rioters, who injured scores of police officers and ransacked Capitol offices as lawmakers were evacuated from the House floor.
In court filings related to the original conspiracy case, prosecutors alleged that the group came to Washington at Rhodes’s urging. Rhodes began discussing plans to keep Trump in the White House by force as early as Nov. 9, the filings state….