Yesterday`s violent storming of the Capitol raises questions about President Trump`s ability to survive the remaining two weeks in office; whether large sections of the Republican Party remain committed to even the basic norms of democratic government; and how the country should proceed from this brazen attack on the peaceful transfer of power. As the center of the government legislature, the U.S. Capitol is the centerpiece of the Capitol Campus, which includes the main congressional office buildings and three Library of Congress buildings built on Capitol Hill in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, the U.S. Capitol covers an area of 175,170 square feet, or about 4 acres, and has a footprint of about 16-1/2 acres. Its length, from north to south, is 751 feet 4 inches; Its greatest width, including approaches, is 350 feet. Its height above the baseline on the Eastern Front to the top of the Statue of Liberty is 288 feet. The building contains about 540 rooms and has 658 windows (108 in the dome alone) and about 850 doors. But ultimately, yesterday`s attack on the Capitol creates a useful environment for prosecutors. It turns out that you can`t physically attack the peaceful transfer of power without breaking a mess of federal laws. Last but not least, the mob clearly violated laws against trespassing on federal facilities and the destruction and theft of federal property. Federal law prohibits “looting of U.S. property,” as well as theft or attempted theft or theft of “any kind or description of U.S.
personal property.” It also prohibits the possession of a firearm in a federal institution “with the intent that a firearm or other dangerous weapon be used to commit a crime.” The offences are found in Title 18, Chapter 115, which criminalizes “treason, sedition and subversive activities.” Betrayal, narrowly defined as “waging war against” the United States or giving “aid and comfort” to one`s enemies, does not fit the factual pattern here. And while federal law also prohibits “rebellion or rebellion against the authority of the United States or its laws,” this law is very rarely used by prosecutors. It is noteworthy, however, that a conviction for rebellion or insurrection would render someone “incapable of holding office under the United States,” a fact that might be of interest to those worried about Trump`s future political ambitions. The United States The Capitol is one of the most architecturally impressive and symbolically significant buildings in the world. It has housed the meeting rooms of the Senate and house of representatives for more than two centuries. Begun in 1793, the United States Capitol was built, burned, rebuilt, enlarged and restored; Today, it stands as a monument not only to its builders, but also to the American people and their government. Hundreds of people took part in what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned as a “failed insurrection.” And as Bobby Chesney described in the National Security Law podcast, the events included a “caricatured avalanche of crimes.” For reasons that remain unclear, relatively few people were arrested yesterday, but the FBI has begun to uncover the identities of those who stormed the Capitol. And a growing number of U.S. prosecutors wrote on Twitter that “federal crimes were violated today in our country`s Capitol” and that rioters traveling to Washington would be prosecuted by U.S.
PROSECUTORS IN THEIR HOME DISTRICTS. The most relevant prohibition is therefore Article 2384, which prohibits “seditious conspiracy”, defined as “two or more persons”. conspire to violently overthrow, crush, or destroy the U.S. government. or to oppose authority by force, or to prevent, impede, or delay the enforcement of any U.S. law by force, or by force, from confiscating, taking, or possessing U.S. property contrary to U.S. authority.
Riot is a serious allegation, but a number of analysts (including Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare) have raised the possibility that some behavior related to yesterday`s debacle may be in line with the provisions of the law. On Capitol Hill, the Senate and House of Representatives meet to discuss, debate, and deliberate on national policy; build consensus; and shape the laws of the land. As the nation has grown, the U.S. Capitol has grown: today, it spans more than 1.5 million square feet, has more than 600 rooms, and miles of hallways. It is topped by a magnificent white dome that overlooks the city of Washington and has become a widely recognized icon of the American people and government. The design of the Capitol was chosen by President George Washington in 1793 and construction began soon after. In the 2000s, the Justice Department made allegations of incendiary conspiracy against several people with links to al-Qaeda. In 2003, Jeffrey Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. The couple, along with a group of others, attempted to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda against U.S. forces. The potential foreign fighters were sentenced to 18 years in prison. A few years later, a federal grand jury indicted seven men for seditious conspiracy, claiming that their leader, Narseal Batiste, “recruited and supervised individuals to organize and train for a war mission against the U.S.
government.” The United States Capitol is divided into five levels. In 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District upheld Abdel-Rahman`s conviction and the constitutionality of the Seditious Conspiracy Act. One defendant, El Sayyid Nosair, joined Abdel-Rahman in challenging the law on seditious conspiracy. Nosair claimed that the law, in the words of the Second Circuit statement, “does not meet the requirements of the treason clause of the U.S. Constitution” — namely, the requirement that two witnesses testify for treason. The judges distinguished between Section 2384 and “treason,” noting that the seditious conspiracy law differs from reason “in its essential elements and punishment.” On the issue of “essential elements,” the judges stressed that the seditious conspiracy “contains no condition for the accused to owe allegiance to the United States, which is necessary for conviction for treason.” For example, in 1981, members of the Puerto Rican nationalist terrorist movement Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) were convicted, inter alia, of seditious conspiracy resulting from their role in bombings, kidnappings and stockpiles of weapons. A few years later, four other FUN members were convicted of plans to bomb a naval training centre. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was not affected by his appeal, writing that “Congress enacted Section 2384 to assist the government in dealing with and warding off urban terrorism.” The Seditious Conspiracy Act “provides the government with a means to make arrests before a plot escalates into a situation of violence.” President Bill Clinton eventually pardoned 16 fun members, nine of whom had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. Citations are automatically generated from bibliographic data for ease of use and may not be complete or accurate.