{"id":117813,"date":"2021-02-04T13:06:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=117813"},"modified":"2021-02-04T13:27:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:27:51","slug":"doj-may-charge-some-capitol-rioters-under-rico-racketeering-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-may-charge-some-capitol-rioters-under-rico-racketeering-law\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ May Charge Some Capitol Rioters Under RICO Racketeering Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-may-charge-some-capitol-rioters-under-rico-racketeering-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=117813&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1230454635.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Federal prosecutors are reportedly considering charging Capitol Hill rioters under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as the RICO Act, in order to use the incident to get at \u201cextremist\u201d groups who may have helped organize the assault.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-trump-capitol-rico-exclusive\/exclusive-u-s-mulls-using-law-designed-to-prosecute-mafia-against-capitol-rioters-idUSKBN2A32W2\">Reuters reports that<\/a> Justice Department officials are considering employing the act, which has been used, over the last several decades, to break up organized criminal enterprises like the Mafia, and \u201cto combat certain ongoing racketeering crimes such as murder, kidnapping, bribery and money laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Joe Biden\u2019s administration has warned that domestic extremism is a growing threat following the Capitol rampage, a sharp departure from the way Trump regarded extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers,\u201d Reuters noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe RICO law was crafted to help prosecutors convict top Mafia leaders who ordered others to commit crimes. RICO cases are complex, often take years to develop, and require approval from Justice Department leadership,\u201d the outlet said. \u201cProsecutors have used it against other violent groups, such as one led by Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the \u2018Blind Sheikh,\u2019 who was convicted of plotting to bomb the United Nations and George Washington Bridge in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The biggest hurdle, though, for prosecutors looking to invoke RICO, is that the act requires the defendants in question constitute a \u201ccriminal enterprise,\u201d and that the enterprise is connected to criminal behavior,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/federal-prosecutors-capitol-rioters-rico-law-organized-crime-2021-2\">per the Insider<\/a>. Although the DOJ has indicated it believes some elements of the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol were planned in advance, and that some of those individuals it has arrested were involved in coordinating the incident both beforehand and once on the ground, it\u2019s not yet clear they represent a \u201ccriminal enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome extremists, including people associated with far-right groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been charged with obstruction of a government proceeding \u2014 in this case, the January 6 joint session of Congress to count electoral votes \u2014 which is classified as a racketeering offense,\u201d the Insider reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConspiracy\u201d is also a way of checking the RICO Act\u2019s boxes, and Thursday morning, the DOJ announced two members of the Proud Boys had been charged with conspiracy for, allegedly, conducting \u201ca planning and funding effort\u201d ahead of the January 6th rallies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/02\/03\/politics\/proud-boys-indicted-capitol-riot\/index.html\">according to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has been clear that it sees tackling so-called \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d as a top priority, and may see the Capitol riots as a way of investigating organizations whose members took part in the attack. That does worry some civil rights groups who foresee the expansion of domestic surveillance powers as a problem for groups from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pri.org\/stories\/2021-01-26\/civil-rights-groups-oppose-expanding-laws-target-domestic-terrorists\">across the political spectrum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs well-intended as it is, we\u2019re pretty confident that when those laws get put in place, they\u2019re not necessarily going to be going after, you know, the Proud Boys per se,\u201d the head of the Arab American Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pri.org\/stories\/2021-01-26\/civil-rights-groups-oppose-expanding-laws-target-domestic-terrorists\">told The World<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s much more likely that it would be, Arab Americans, American Muslims, Black Lives Matter protesters. It\u2019s just a pattern that we regrettably are quite familiar with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em><span>member<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal prosecutors are reportedly considering charging Capitol Hill rioters under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as the RICO Act, in order to use the incident to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892641,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4172,4170,5282,5279,5029,4729],"class_list":["post-117813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-capitol","tag-charge","tag-rico","tag-rioters","tag-some","tag-under"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}