William Todd Wilson, Seditious Conspiracy, North Carolina 2021

North Carolina man pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of Congress for efforts to stop transfer of power following 2020 presidential election.

A regional leader of the Oath Keepers pleaded guilty today to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding for his actions before, during and after the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His and others’ actions sought to stop the transfer of power by disrupting a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

William Todd Wilson, 45, of Newton Grove, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol breach. As part of the plea agreement, Wilson has agreed to cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigation.

Wilson is the third Oath Keepers member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction charges. Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama, pleaded guilty on March 2, 2022. Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton, Georgia, pleaded guilty on April 29, 2022.

As described in court documents, Wilson was an Oath Keeper member since 2016. He was a leader of a chapter from Sampson County, North Carolina. The Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias. Though the Oath Keepers will accept anyone as members, they explicitly focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement and first-responder personnel.

In his guilty plea, Wilson, a military and law enforcement veteran, admitted that he agreed with others to take part in a plan to use force to prevent, hinder and delay the execution of the laws of the United States governing the transfer of presidential power. He and others used encrypted and private communications, equipped themselves with a variety of weapons, donned combat and tactical gear and were prepared to answer a call to take up arms.

According to court documents, Wilson and other conspirators engaged in numerous communications in the weeks leading to Jan. 6, often using an encrypted messaging application called ‘Signal.’ In one post, on Dec. 14, 2020, Wilson wrote, ‘It is time to fight!’ In another, on Dec. 30, 2020, he posted, ‘Things are about to get real . . . and we need to be ready as ever!’ On Jan. 5, 2021, in response to a message anticipating unrest after the next day’s Congressional proceeding, Wilson replied, ‘That’s why I have all my gear with me.’

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