In a phone call with federal prosecutors last week, Attorney General William Barr suggested that individuals arrested during “violent protests” like those in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, could be charged with “sedition.”
“Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors in a call last week that they should consider charging rioters and others who committed violent crimes at protests in recent months with sedition, according to two people familiar with the call,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
The suggestion “alarmed” some attorneys, CNN adds, noting that the charges would suggest that violent protesters are conspiring together to overthrow or undermine the authority of the federal government.
Individuals are rarely charged with sedition. When it happens, those same individuals are rarely convicted. In 2010, CNN notes, the federal government charged “a right-wing militia called the Hutarees with seditious conspiracy. They were acquitted for lack of evidence. Federal prosecutors were successful in using the law against Puerto Rican separatists in the 1930s.” – READ MORE
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