David Moerschel and Joseph Hackett, members of the violent, far-right group, the Oath Keepers, were sentenced to three and half years and three years, respectively, in prison for seditious conspiracy.
Federal Judge Amit Mehta announced the sentences in June 2023.
A jury convicted both men – one a former neurophysiologist and the other a former chiropractor — of three additional felonies, ruling they had plans to disrupt the election certification.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/02/politics/oath-keeper-january-6-sentenced/index.html
Moerschel and Hackett, clad in paramilitary gear, were among the Oath Keepers who breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Republican president Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
“Hackett and Moerschel were near the House of Representatives chamber as lawmakers were gathered for the certification process,” Reuters reported.
A federal prosecutor said Moerschel deserved a longer sentence because he had brought guns to a Virginia hotel with the intent of having them used in the attack.
“It is true that Mr. Moerschel’s conduct was of grave concern,” Judge Mehta said. “The weaponry is scary enough as it is. And we don’t need to be told of the damage that kind of weapon can cause.”
“The seriousness is magnified by the motivation,” the judge added, and “something that is politically motivated presents a degree of danger” higher than other gun crimes.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/02/politics/oath-keeper-january-6-sentenced/index.html
Moerschel, in a statement at the sentencing, tearfully said that when he was in the Capitol on Jan. 6, “I felt like God was saying to me, ‘Get out of here,’ and I didn’t. And I disobeyed God and I broke laws.”
Moerschel’s lawyer on Friday asked that his client be sentenced to home detention or minimal incarceration. “He has lived an exemplary life other than those 11 minutes” he was in the Capitol building,
Moerschel expressed regret to the court and said he shouldn’t have joined the Oath Keepers and listened to one of the groups’ leaders, Kelly Meggs.
“I don’t mean anything bad about Kelly Meggs, but he’s a used car salesman,” he said. “It was really dumb to follow that guy.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oath-keeper-defendants-sentenced-jan-6-sedition/story?id=99795052
“I regret being there that day,” Hackett told the judge Friday. “I regret ever joining the Oath Keepers.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oath-keeper-defendants-sentenced-jan-6-sedition/story?id=99795052
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oath-keeper-defendants-sentenced-jan-6-sedition/story?id=99795052
