Rich Welsh| Ray Epps is still a free man.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors charged the Founder of the group called the Oath Keepers and ten other members with Seditious Conspiracy for their role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
January 6 seems to be the only thing that the Democrats believe they have going for them to win the 2022 midterm elections. Everything else they are trying to do is falling apart. So we will see a lot more partisan lying and manufacturing of evidence in the spirit of losers like Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) who made up a text message from Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) to former Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that never happened.
Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes, 56, was arrested on Thursday in Little Elm, Texas, and faces charges for crimes related to the rioters breaching the US Capitol building.
The Oath Keepers’ leader said that he was present at the riot but he never entered the Capitol. That should be case closed concerning charges for him breaching the Capitol. If the government doesn’t have any evidence that he entered the building, then this is nothing but a smear campaign to intimidate other groups away from redressing their grievances to their government, something that is protected by the Constitution. Remember, he said he never entered the building and if the government cannot prove that, then he should not be charged for it.
However, members of the group were seen dressed in paramilitary gear as they were walking through the crowds of people to enter the Capitol.
“The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that, following the November 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by January 20, 2021,” the DOJ wrote in a release.
“Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, Rhodes and various co-conspirators coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification of the electoral college vote, the indictment alleges. Rhodes and several co-conspirators made plans to bring weapons to the area to support the operation. The co-conspirators then traveled across the country to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in early January 2021.”
The Thursday indictment has the first seditious conspiracy charges to be brought in connection with the riot. The charge carries a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison for anyone found guilty of conspiring to use force “to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.”
The indictment says that prosecutors believe Rhodes organized with members of the Oath Keepers to travel to metro DC for the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6. Rhodes allegedly said in private conversations that he was up for using force if Joe Biden was sworn into office.
It is one thing to talk smack like that in private conversations when you’re angry, emotional, anxious, etc. It is a completely different thing to act it out. If something is charged for saying things like that but never participates, then why hasn’t Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) ever been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy? She told her thousands of supporters in person and online to accost Trump administration officials if they saw them, saying, “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” That is a form of intimidation, with the goal being to change the behavior of the administration official.
“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit,” he wrote in an encrypted message to other Oath Keepers back in November 2020.
Let me say this. If Rhodes went into the Capitol building and was not waved in by Capitol Police like hundreds of others, then he should be charged with breaching the Capitol.
Now, on to seditious conspiracy.
Prosecutors said Rhodes did hold a meeting with fellow Oath Keepers leaders and he “outlined a plan to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power, including preparations for the use of force, and urged those listening to participate.”
In another message sent to his members on December 31, 2020, he allegedly wrote, “There is no standard political or legal way out of this.”
Over the next two days, according to the indictment, 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.
The indictment said that the defendants stashed weapons at a Virginia hotel and that they were prepared to “rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, DC” to support the efforts to stop the presidential certification vote.
So, the DOJ says they were prepared to “rapidly transport firearms and other weapons,” but they didn’t. If they did, you know darn right well it would have been said in the indictment and it wasn’t. No one was shot or stabbed or bludgeoned by any Oath Keepers that day.
What do we know that actually happened that is different from what the government says was planned?
There was no stash of weapons brought to the Capitol to be used. None. None of the Oath Keepers carried weapons on Capitol grounds or inside the Capitol building.
The timing of this is very suspicious. Why did it take so long, over a year, to bring these charges against the Oath Keepers? If they knew all that time that the Oath Keepers had weapons then why didn’t they arrest them sooner? Could it be they came out with the indictments today to take some of the headlines off the news story of the Supreme Court’s shutting down Biden’s OSHA vaccine mandate? Anything is possible when it comes to Democrats.
Prosecutors said that Rhodes used Signal during the attack to communicate with other members of the Oath Keepers who were at the Capitol.
“All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything,” Rhodes allegedly wrote. “So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They’ve had enough,” he allegedly said via Signal at 1:38 pm, not long after the riot started.
Doesn’t that show that Trump had nothing to do with these people? If Rhodes was frustrated that Trump wasn’t doing anything to stop the certification, and was doing nothing but complaining, then how are the Democrats going to get away with accusing the former president of conspiring and inciting a riot?
The January 6 committee reprobates have argued that Trump was derelict in his duty to protect the people in the Capitol. How come not a single member of the mainstream news media brought up that Trump had zero responsibility for the safety and protection of people at the Capitol? That duty went to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who we discovered turned down numerous offers of National GuardTroops to be used for security in and around the Capitol. The fact that Trump did not send the troops is proof that he had no authority to do so if Pelosi turned down the offers. How come January 6 committee member and Democrat tool Representative Liz Cheney (RINO-WY) didn’t say that Nancy Pelosi was derelict in her duty to protect the Capitol? She was, so why are they blaming Trump, who had no authority there?
Today, we know more about the Oath Keepers and how they allegedly planned to use force in the Capitol than we know about ANTIFA and how they decide to use force on the streets of America’s cities.
I have no problem with law enforcement looking into this and bringing charges if there is enough evidence that the defendants did the things they allege. They will have their day in court where justice will be served regardless of the outcome. But knowing how woke the current DOJ is, I worry about their due process rights being denied or them being railroaded the way many of the others arrested for the January 6 riot who have been sitting in the DC jail for over a year on misdemeanor charges.
