According to police, six people from Michigan are among those who have been arrested in connection with riots at the capitol building on Wednesday. Now the question: what kind of charges could they face?
Roughly 70 people have been arrested and investigations are on-going after extremists loyal to President Donald Trump invaded the capitol building in Washington DC on Wednesday, and of those 70 people that have been arrested, 6 so far have been from Michigan, who range in age from 28 years-of-age to 64.
Devin Schindler is a professor at West Michigan University’s Cooley Law School. He says the rioters could face a laundry list of charges, some that carry a sentence of years behind bars.
“Of course, there are the garden variety of felonies and misdemeanors, trespassing, brandishing a weapon in a gun-free zone, destruction of property, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest,” Schindler said. “But the real important charge here, and the big one is the crime of conspiracy to commit sedition. It is a crime—indeed a 20-year felony—to oppose by force the authority of the United States Government. To prevent or hinder the delay the execution of any law, or by force to cease any property of the United Sates, this is considered sedition. And as near as I can tell from watching some of the videos we saw and some of things we saw on television, all three of these were present,” he said.
And the number of arrests could grow, as authorities are asking for people to take a look at the photos, and help identify suspects involved in Wednesday’s break-in.