It is the most serious charge indicted after the storming of the Capitol: the so-called seditious conspiracy.

It is rarely raised in the United States, and even more rarely is it successful in court.

Nearly a thousand people were charged with crimes on January 6, 2021, but only 14 counts of “seditious conspiracy.”

All the more significant is the judgment of the Federal District Court in Washington, which found four other members of the right-wing extremist militia "Oath Keepers" guilty in this sense on Monday.

In November, it was the organization's leader, Stewart Rhodes, and another comrade.

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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All of them are said not only to have been part of the violent mobs that stormed the Capitol in January of last year to prevent Donald Trump from taking power from Joe Biden.

Rather, they are said to have been the leaders of the political conspiracy and brutally pushed it forward.

The jury deliberated about 13 hours over three days in the case of Joseph Hackett, Roberto Minuta, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo before returning the guilty verdict.

The sentence is still pending, including for the "Oath Keepers" convicted last year.

The maximum penalty for "seditious conspiracy" is twenty years in prison.

But the four men have all been found guilty of other charges, such as disrupting an official act.

Ready for deadly violence

"They pretended to protect the Constitution, but they trampled on it," prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said at the end of the trial.

The "Oath Keepers" ignored the will of the people, but "had the audacity to present themselves as 'Keepers of the Oath'".

The public prosecutor's office had emphasized several times during the trial that the members of the right-wing extremist militia were prepared to use potentially lethal violence.

Both Minuta of Texas and Vallejo of Arizona could have killed lawmakers had they not been stopped by Capitol Police and the National Guard.

Minuta, Hackett and Moerschel joined two groups on Jan. 6, 2021, to invade the Capitol "brute force," prosecutors say.

Veteran Vallejo, on the other hand, was in a hotel room in neighboring Virginia with guns, as part of a "rapid reaction force" to bring guns to the city should there be a breakdown in the rule of law.

The defense repeated the line from the trial against "Oath Keeper" boss Rhodes, that although a possible "revolution" or a "civil war" was discussed within the organization, concrete plans were never made.

The four accused, incited by right-wing media, are said to have turned to the "Oath Keepers" for fear of Antifa, criminals and corona restrictions.

Hackett's attorney, Angie Halim, said in her closing argument that the storming of the Capitol "came by surprise" to all of them.

Another important trial related to the storming of the Capitol is ongoing at the courthouse where the four Oath Keepers were found guilty on Monday.

Five members of the far-right “Proud Boys” are accused of “seditious conspiracy”.