Military vets started plotting violent insurrection within days of Trump's election loss: Indictments

Some military veterans began recruitment efforts within days of the election to challenge the congressional certification of Joe Biden's victory, according to prosecutors.

Indictments against a pair of Ohio militia members and a Virginia man show some of former president Donald Trump's supporters recruited, trained and transported militants to Washington, D.C, to disrupt the joint session of Congress and overturn Biden's win, reported the Washington Post.

A four-count indictment accuses three military veterans -- 38-year-old Jessica Marie Watkins and 50-year-old Donovan Ray Crowl, both of Woodstock, Ohio, and 66-year-old Thomas Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia -- of conspiring to obstruct Congress and other counts punishable up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Caldwell appears to have ties to the anti-government Oath Keepers organization, although his attorney denies he's a member, and accused him and Watkins of contacting recruits Nov. 9, two days after Biden was projected as the election winner, and holding "basic training" near Columbus, Ohio, to get them "fighting fit by inauguration."

The newly unsealed indictment also alleges Watkins took part in an encrypted "leadership only" call to coordinate the violent action, and that Caldwell arranged with someone to bring weapons and at least 40 people from North Carolina ahead of Jan. 6.

All three have denied wrongdoing in the Capitol insurrection.