What with the twin blights of Omicron and the invasion of Ukraine, sometimes it’s easy to forget that a bunch of maniacs overran the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. It’s retreated to the background; there have been no referrals for criminal conduct besides contempt coming from the House January 6 Select Committee. The attempts to make sense of the attack have slowed or stopped. I’m no longer seeing too many people trying to piece together the chain of events.
Until today. We nailed one of the participants on seditious conspiracy and he’s talking to avoid further time.
Joshua James, a 34-year-old Arab man, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. The maximum penalty for each crime is 20 years in federal prison.
As part of his plea agreement, other charges against him were dismissed and the government agreed to not charge him with any additional crimes in connection with Capitol breach. James agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and testify in future court proceedings regarding the Capitol riots.
Here’s where it gets juicy. We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that part of that crowd came for violence to delay the certification of the election. Was it part of THE plan? Et tu, Roger Stone? We may know more when this cretin starts singing.
The seditious conspiracy indictment alleged that, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, James other co-defendants and others conspired to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021.
In his guilty plea, James, a military veteran, admitted that, from November 2020 through January 2021, he conspired with other Oath Keeper members and affiliates to use force to prevent, hinder and delay the execution of the laws of the United States governing the transfer of presidential power. He used encrypted and private communications, equipped himself with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear, and was prepared to answer a call to take up arms.
Ten more of these huckleberries will be facing similar charges in the future. One of them is the leader of the Oathkeepers, Stewart Rhodes. Sedition charges are rare-but it underscores how serious the threat was to our government that day. We can only hope that they can tell us more about whether or not they were encouraged or instructed by other actors. Perhaps they operated as a cell, free to plan their own mayhem. Then again, if they blab about coordination, maybe we get some evidence on someone nearer to the Trump circle.
It’s a new day for the truth about the 6th.
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