JUST IN: Justice Department Weighing Sedition Charges Against Oath Keepers Militia Over Its Role in Capitol Insurrection

Photo credit: Brent Stirton, Getty Images

The Department of Justice is considering charging a number of the Oath Keepers militia group with sedition for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

According to the New York Times, the DOJ has been weighing the more serious criminal complaints for several weeks, after it indicted several of the group’s members on conspiracy charges in February. But the final confirmation of President Joe Biden’s new attorney general, Merrick Garland, in mid March has set the stage for him to make the final call on the whether or not to proceed.

The news comes after the federal prosecutor overseeing Capitol riot cases told CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday that he is open to seeking sedition charges against some of those who attacked the Capito; as well as criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. Sedition charges are a rarity, the Times notes, and there hasn’t been a case successfully prosecuted in roughly two decades.

Law enforcement officials have given senior officials in the Justice Department’s National Security Division potential evidence that they gathered about the trio and an analysis of whether that evidence supported a sedition charge, but they stopped short of delivering a more formal prosecution memo or a draft of an indictment, one of the officials said.

Early on in the sprawling investigation into the assault on the Capitol, investigators began focusing on members of the Oath Keepers, a militia that was founded by former law enforcement officers and military veterans, as well as on members of the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys.

The defense attorney for Donovan Crowl, one of the Oath Keepers who already faces conspiracy charges, dismissed the idea of the DOJ seeking sedition.

“I have seen no evidence to support a seditious conspiracy charge against my client,” Crowl’s counsel, Carmen Hernandez, told the Times. “I was surprised that the former U.S. attorney would comment so publicly on the case.”