Saying the GOP “stormed” the meeting is a cute way of describing what was actually the commission of a serious felony (up to 6 years in prison):
Conspiracy to impede or injure officer (18 U.S.C. 372):
If two or more persons in any State, Territory, Possession, or District conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof, or to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave the place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such persons shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six years, or both.
This law exists to punish those who join together to intimidate or stop an officer of the United States from conducting his/her duties. The idea of the law is that a group acting together is a bigger threat than one person acting alone. When 41 people cram into a place where they don’t fit (in violation of national security) and thereby stop stop an important, official U.S. Government hearing, this is exactly what the law is written to cover.
Breaking down the parts of the law:
1. It covers all of the two or more persons involved — which is all the plotters, regardless of whether they actually entered the room. Conspiracy does not require that every actor takes every step, just that they were part of the plot.
2. There must be intimidation intended to stop an officer from official duties. This is easy to prove as that was the stated point of the 41: they would force their way in and stop the hearing. Their press conference is essentially admitting that they are planning to/have just committed this crime.
3. There must be officers of the United States conducting official duties. This is covered two ways: First, the witness who was preventing from testifying is an officer at the Defense Department. Giving this testimony is part of her duty and she was clearly prevented in “the lawful discharge.” They also caused her to leave the location where she was to perform her duties — which is covered under the law as an offending act. Second, the members of Congress are officers who are holding an official hearing as part of their duties and this was interrupted. They were also forced to leave the location by the crowd of persons intentionally intimidating them.
Overall, this is not just a prank or stunt. It is a textbook example of a violation of a felony by 41 + staffers (and perhaps POTUS who apparently green-lighted this). All of these persons should be treated as potential felons and asked about their involvement. (Note: the staffers of the 41 are potentially involved because they helped by sending tweets, organizing, etc. Not all were aware or involved, but Congresspeople do not do much without clearing with their staff — so there are a lot of felons among the staff).
Congratulations to all of you 41+, because of your stupid stunt, you are all now un-indicted felons. When, if ever, will you be indicted for this? Who knows, but there is a five year statute of limitations (18 U.S.C. 3282) to find out. And perhaps a different political party in charge of the Justice Department within 2 years.
And regardless of when/if the hammer falls, for the rest of your career, you will have to account for your felony actions. To all you staffers to the 41 out there, good luck on becoming a federal judge, cabinet member or anyone who needs Senate confirmation. This stunt will not age well because of the National Security violations, in addition to the felonious actions. I do not think it will be forgotten.