While it’s been gratifying to see the names of those who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6 gradually being added to the list of those arrested by the FBI, seeing the charges associated with those arrests can be frustrating. That’s especially true when the only charges applied to those who clearly set out to take hostages are charged with little more than trespass.
But as the names pile up, the charges are starting to get more severe. On Tuesday morning, The Washington Post reported that authorities handed down the first charge of conspiracy against a leader of the Oath Keepers, a white supremacist militia. Thomas Caldwell is now facing four federal charges, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, which in itself can come with a five-year sentence. Conspiracy charges have now also been added to the list against two men from Texas: Alex Harkrider and Ryan Nichols. Just one day short of two weeks after the insurgency, the number of people arrested after the event on federal charges stands at 94. And the list of charges against those already arrested is growing.
It’s still far from a complete accounting of those who smashed their way into the Capitol, much less the thousands who took part in a deadly insurgency. But it’s trending the right direction.
Caldwell wasn’t the only member of Oath Keepers—which tends to recruit from police and military ranks—who went through the door of the Capitol. ProPublica put together a stream of videos that were posted to the live-dead-live-again-thanks-to-Russia social media platform Parler. In that video, several members of the group can be seen bragging about their entry into the Capitol.
Some of those members—Jessica Watkins, Jon Schaffer, and Donovan Crowl—have now been arrested on charges that include violent entry, disorderly conduct, disrupting government proceedings, and engaging in a violent act against a person. Watkins, Shaffer, and Crowl are also members of the “Ohio State Regular Militia.”
In addition to the Oath Keepers, members of “Three Percent” groups were known to be involved in the insurgency, along with Boogaloo Bois, and other white supremacist groups. The arrest of members of these groups may be taking longer expressly because they involve investigating conspiracy and sharing of information and plans among a large group.
