WASHINGTON (AP) – Two Florida men who stormed the United States (US) Capitol with other members of the far-right Oath Keepers group were sentenced on Friday to three years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges – the latest in a historic string of sentences in the January 6, 2021, attack.
David Moerschel, 45, a neurophysiologist from Punta Gorda, and Joseph Hackett, a 52-year-old chiropractor from Sarasota, were convicted in January alongside other members of the antigovernment extremist group for their roles in what prosecutors described as a violent plot to stop the transfer power from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
Both men were among the lower-level members charged with seditious conspiracy.
Moerschel was sentenced to three years in prison and Hackett got three and a half years.
All told, nine people associated with the Oath Keepers have been tried for seditious conspiracy and six were convicted of the rarely used Civil War-era charge in two separate trials, including the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes.
Rhodes was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison – a record for a January 6 defendant.
Three defendants were cleared of the sedition charge but found guilty of other January 6 crimes.
Moerschel and Hackett helped amass guns and ammunition to stash in a Virginia hotel for a so-called “quick reaction force” that could be quickly shuttled to Washington, prosecutors said.
The weapons were never deployed. Moerschel provided an AR-15 and a Glock semi-automatic handgun and Hackett helped transport weapons, prosecutors said.
On January 6, both men dressed in paramilitary gear and marched into the Capitol with fellow Oath Keepers in a military-style line formation, charging documents stated.
“The security of our country and the safety of democracy should not hinge on the impulses of madmen,” Justice Department prosecutor Troy Edwards said.
