Four Oath Keepers members found guilty of obstruction in the far-right group's third Jan. 6 trial
The third set of Oath Keepers to go on trial were not facing seditious conspiracy charges like the first two groups.
By Daniel Barnes and Ryan J. Reilly
March 20, 2023, 1:43 PM EDT
The third set of Oath Keepers to go on trial were not facing seditious conspiracy charges like the first two groups.
www.nbcnews.com
WASHINGTON — Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Monday, as a judge ordered jurors to continue deliberating over the most serious counts against two additional defendants.
Sandra Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs and William Isaacs were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The jury found Michael Greene, another member of the Oath Keepers, not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding but was still debating whether he was guilty of aiding or abetting the obstruction of an official proceeding. Bennie Parker was found not guilty of aiding or abetting, but the jury was still deliberating over the charge of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
All six members of the far-right group were found guilty of the charge of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Both Parker and Greene may ultimately be convicted of only that charge.
It was the third group of Oath Keepers members to go to trial for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021, but these defendants did not face the more serious and seldom-used charge of seditious conspiracy that those in the first two groups faced.
Parker, Steele, Meggs and Isaacs were alleged to have entered the Capitol, while Greene and Parker were not.
Jurors began their first full day of deliberations on March 13.
Greene testified at the trial that the Oath Keepers were like old men talking trash at the barbershop. Pressed about that comparison, Greene said two of the men he was charged with were “old as s---.”
Nine other members of the Oath Keepers have been tried in relation to Jan. 6. Five of them — Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — were found guilty in November of a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. Two of them, Oath Keepers founder Rhodes and Meggs, were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Oath Keeper's leadership chart.
In the second trial, which ended in January, all four defendants — Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo — were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, bringing the total number of Jan. 6 defendants found guilty of that charge at trial to six.
Five other members of the Proud Boys are on trial accused of seditious conspiracy, as well; that trial is expected to go on for several more weeks.
More than two years after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the FBI has arrested about 1,000 people in connection with the breach. And new arrests continue to be made; this month, the list of arrestees included Larry Giberson, a senior at Princeton University who is accused of joining the violent mob inside the tunnel on the west side of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and urging other rioters to drag police officers out.
As
NBC News has reported, the FBI has the names of hundreds of additional people who entered the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, as well as the names of more than 100 people who are listed on the FBI's Capitol Violence page.
William Isaacs, Laura Steele, Sandra Parker and Connie Meggs.