The Justice Department finally started getting serious about holding the ringleader accountable on January 6th

We who are desperate for the Justice Department to wake up from sleep like lazy, excited after it was announced Thursday that the office of Attorney General Merrick Garland has charged individuals involved in Far-right, anti-government group Oath-Keepers with a plot to participate in the violent uprising, attempted at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

However, that is only the first step. For full accountability and justice, we need to investigate their GOP allies who remain committed to subverting democracy and implementing minority rule through a The coup is progressing slowly.

The rarely invoked accusation, in such an overt and politicized case, is a remarkable development. That means the Justice Department is flexing its full legal mechanism for individuals — such as Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath-Keepers and a former Army Ranger and good friend. Yale Law School — because they’re confident they can prove it at least two people conspired to use force to “topple, bring down, or destroy by force the Government of the United States.”

Unlike most prosecutions surrounding this investigation, the punishment will not be a slap on the wrist or probation. This one has teeth. If convicted, the maximum sentence is twenty years in prison.

The indictment revealed a detailed, organized, and coordinated plot by members of these Oath-Keepers to break into the United States Capitol and use violence against elected officials, such as the President House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, to refuse to certify the 2020 election. Heavily armed members of the far-right group are also stationed at a nearby Virginia hotel as a “rapid response force” if need.

This information alone shows that January 6th is more than just a “Normal tourist visit”, as described by GOP Representative Andrew Clyde, who is hiding next to his colleagues behind a barricade and is protected by the Capitol police. By the way, those same policemen, now were mocked and ridiculed by some seemingly pro-law and order conservatives, such as Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

The uprising attempt that resulted in the death of 5 people, including a police officer, was not a spontaneous outburst of “economic anxiety” in the heat of the moment but suddenly created a crowd. unruly Trump supporters disgruntled. This was a methodically planned coup attempt in part by heavily armed individuals.

We already know their subversive intentions were shared by their conservative counterparts, who wore suits instead of military uniforms and used pencils and powerpoints instead of guns.

For example, we read right-wing activist and lawyer John Eastman’s Six Point Memo on which Trump and his team relied to carry out their failed coup. Thanks to the initial collaboration of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the House Intel Committee on January 6 also saw a Slideshow shared among Trump allies, discussing how to subvert the election. We know that by January 6, Trump and his team set up a “war room” at the Willard . Hotel, including Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, to carry out their plan.

As a cherry on top, last week Trump’s White House aide, Peter Navarro, confirmed the plot on MSNBC without actually mentioning the word coup, instead admitting, “we have more than 100 congressmen and senators… ready to go” what he called the “Blue Bay Sweep”—in which six battleground states would confirm the election and refer it to the House of Representatives.

The key questions for a conspiracy are who else was involved, what did they know and when did they know it? It’s easy to dismiss the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an organization “Based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy Americans’ liberties.” However, the fringe area is now the base and beating heart of the GOP, consisting of a large number of elected officials and worrisome voters who believe in the Big Lie and support the QAnon movement. – which is considered a domestic terrorist threat by the United States. About 40% of Republicans believe violence against the government is justified.

On the Signal encrypted messaging app, Rhodes wrote, “We won’t get through this without civil war” He later wrote, “We will have a war. That is inevitable “.

Rhodes sounds a lot like GOP Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who gave a keynote address at white nationalist convention when he’s not busy tweet violent anime fantasies against Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In his spare time, Gosar visits the Oath-Keepers chapter in Arizona, where a few years earlier the group’s leader had asked him if the United States was at the head of a civil war. “We are in it,” Gosar is said to have replied. “We just haven’t started shooting each other yet.” Gosar is also one of three Republicans in Congress that Ali Alexander, one of the leaders of the “Stop Theft” protest, said. helped him hatch a plan to put “maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting.” Other congressmen include Representative Andy Biggs, another friend of the Oath-Keepers and Representative Mo Brooks, who just randomly decided to wear a Kevlar vest on January 6. These three elected officials can be seen as allies and friends of these far-right groups.

However, the modern GOP has become a radicalized, weaponized movement with active member of those who keep their vows, consists of David Eastman and Mark Finchem (of the Alaska and Arizona Houses of Representatives respectively), both believed the Big Lie and were in Washington on January 6 to against certification. In fact, Trump is backing Finchem to be Arizona’s next Secretary of State. According to an analysis by BuzzFeed News, at least 28 people currently holding elected office have joined or supported the Oath Keepers, the leader and members have just been charged entice.

As a Muslim, this got me thinking. I can’t imagine how this country would react if a group of bearded Black and brown members of a far-right group planned to cross the US Capitol, stage a coup, Police attack and chase around white members of Congress. If it was later discovered that elected officials such as Democratic Delegates Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were active supporters and members of the group, would they still be in office? not to mention not being investigated and prosecuted? Of course not. Still, in 2022, it’s still good to be a white elected official who’s been a member of the Oath-Keepers – until now.

The latest indictment by the Justice Department at least gives me hope that they are taking this active threat to our democracy seriously. The way to really prove it, and make sure a coup like this doesn’t happen again in 2024, is to start pursuing their allies, the extremists, sitting comfortably in Congress.