seditious conspiracy

Seditious conspiracy is a federal crime, defined at 18 U.S.C. section 2384, in which two or more people conspire to overthrow the U.S. government by force, to oppose its authority by force, or to forcibly prevent the execution of federal law. It is a rarely charged and serious offense, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and it differs from insurrection in that it punishes the agreement to use force rather than the act itself. Members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol; Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of those defendants when he began his second term in January 2025.