What Seditious Conspiracy?

Judge Tim Kelly has sentenced five members of the Proud Boys to a total of 82 years in prison. In the process, Kelly branded the men as terrorists. But what do videos from that day really show?

On September 5, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced the last of five members of the Proud Boys convicted by a D.C. jury of various crimes, including seditious conspiracy, earlier this year. Kelly imposed the longest sentence to date in any January 6 case by ordering Enrique Tarrio, the group’s ex-leader, to serve 22 years in prison even though Tarrio was not in the Washington, D.C. that day.

Similar to his decision on the fate of Tarrio’s co-defendants, Kelly consented to the Department of Justice’s request to add a terror enhancement to Tarrio’s sentence, which dramatically elevated the base amount of prison time under federal sentencing guidelines. The crime? Shaking a temporary metal fence on Capitol grounds. Admitting that Tarrio “did not directly participate in the fence's destruction,” now officially a federal crime of terror as I explained here, Kelly nonetheless claimed Tarrio somehow contributed to the destruction of government property from a Baltimore hotel room.

I’ve heavily criticized Kelly’s conduct in court and will have more to say after appeals are filed in each case. His failure to protect the rights of the defendants from egregious government overreach, refusal to move the trial out of D.C., and numerous rulings that prevented the jury (and the public) to learn the full scope of FBI involvement in the group are just a few areas ripe for appeal.

But the question before the public right now is—what exactly did these men do on January 6?

Seditious Conspiracy is Anything The Regime Wants It To Be

One would be hard pressed to get a straight answer from either Judge Kelly or any of the many prosecutors handling the case. Overthrow the government? Interrupt a session of Congress? Thwart the “peaceful transfer” of power? Scare Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? All of the above?

Hyperbole from the court and the government veered from the laughable to the absurd. And by comparing a four-hour disturbance to 9/11, the prosecutors in this case insulted every victim and their loved ones.

So, what was the crime of sedition? To help us understand, here are the instructions given to jurors for seditious conspiracy. The government’s burden of proof in this trial was basically nonexistent—not that a jury picked from a city of nearly all Democrats requires much evidence before finding a Trump supporter guilty of any concocted charge. In the indictment,

This essentially could apply to any protest in the future and certainly could have applied to the 2017 inauguration riots and 2018 Kavanaugh demonstrations:

BY FORCE. Sounds scary. (Keep in mind the Proud Boys were not armed and none was charged with assaulting police. And the “transfer of presidential power” happens on January 20, not January 6 but whatevs.)

But oh by the way, force isn’t really necessary.

And if you can make sense of this…congratulations! You are qualified to be a government prosecutor, federal judge, or D.C. jurist! During closing arguments in the trial, one prosecutor told the jury a “wink and a nod” represented an agreement to join the conspiracy. What a joke.

Now what about the actions of defendants such as Joe Biggs, sentenced to 17 years, and Ethan Nordean, sentenced to 18 years, on January 6?

Nordean is in all black wearing a baseball hat turned backwards. Biggs is in a flannel shirt and neck gaiter.

If you can stand to watch these “terrorists” in action, see for yourself:

At one point, Nordean pulled a protester away from police:

Nordean entered the building with Capitol Police standing right there:

Here are Biggs’ movements inside and outside the Capitol:

And here is the terroristic fence shaking incident. Just like 9/11

And what terrorist among us doesn’t celebrate with a selfie video right outside the scene of the crime?

One can disagree with their rowdy conduct and rough language. But that doesn’t make them terrorists. And it certainly doesn’t make them hardened criminals deserving of up to two decades in federal prison.