Brian Ulrich, of Guyton, Georgia has pleaded guilty to charges of seditious conspiracy and is cooperating with the government's investigation into the insurrection on January 6th, according to a DOJ press release.
Ulrich confessed to conspiring with other Oath Keeper members and affiliates "to use force to prevent, hinder and delay the execution of the laws of the United States governing the transfer of presidential power." In pursuit of that goal, "he and others used encrypted and private communications, equipped themselves with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear, and were prepared to use force to stop the transfer of power."
According to the DOJ, Ulrich also purchased tactical gear and other items, including two-way radio receivers, a recon backpack, a tactical holster, a medical tourniquet, and a half skull motorcycle helmet. He was also told that that others would be available with firearms, a fact that has since been confirmed in other indictments.
Here's what he did on January 6th:
On Jan. 6, after learning the Capitol had been breached, Ulrich and others traveled to the Capitol on golf carts, driving around multiple barricades, including marked law enforcement vehicles. Ulrich was wearing a tactical vest, radio equipment, a body-worn camera, goggles, a camouflage tactical backpack, a black neck gaiter, and an Oath Keepers hat.
He and others weaved through the restricted area in a military “stack” formation with hands on shoulders and gear. Ulrich marched in a line up the stairs on the east side of the Capitol. He entered the building at 3:22 p.m., maneuvering himself toward the entrance to the Rotunda as law enforcement officers were attempting to clear the area. After officers deployed chemical-irritant spray, Ulrich left the Capitol and gathered with other co-conspirators approximately 100 feet from the building. In the aftermath of Jan. 6, Ulrich continued to communicate with co-conspirators on Signal, including one message urging them to “stay below the radar.”
Ulrich is facing prison time of up to 20 years for the seditious conspiracy charge and another 20 years for obstructing an official proceeding, though it's doubtful he will receive the maximum sentence if he continues to cooperate.
This might be a good time to reflect on Jamie Raskin's framing of the insurrection as 3 circles of sedition. The outer circle is the general public caught up in the fray. The middle circle consists of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups, and the inner circle are those people in government who assisted. As Raskin noted in his speech, the circles sometimes overlap. In this case, Ulrich is solidly in the second circle.
My sense of things is that we haven't even begun to understand the ways these circles intertwine, but there can be no question about the fact that January 6th wasn’t just a riot. Trump and his cronies planned to stop the peaceful transfer of power so he could cling to the White House and the power therein forever.
