Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System

by Ryan J. Reilly

The January 6th attack is an unprecedented crime in American history. Sprawling and openly political, it can't be handled by the traditional rules and norms of law enforcement--threatening the very idea of justice and its role in society.

The attack on the Capitol building following the 2020 election was an extraordinarily large and brazen crime. Conspiracies were formed on social media in full public view, the law-breakers paraded on national television with undisguised faces, and with outgoing President Donald Trump openly cheering them on. The basic concept of law enforcement--investigators find criminals and serve justice--quickly breaks down in the face of such an event. The system has been strained by the sheer volume of criminals and the widespread perception that what they did wasn't wrong. 

A mass of online tipsters--"sedition hunters"--have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence and creating an ethical dilemma. Who gets to serve justice? How can law enforcement still function as a pillar of civil society? As the foundations of our government are questioned, the FBI and Department of Justice are the first responders to a crisis of democracy and law that threatens to spread, and fast.

In this work of extraordinary reportage, Ryan Reilly gets to know would-be revolutionaries, obsessive online sleuths, and FBI agents, and shines a light on a justice system that's straining to maintain order in our polarized country. From the moment the police barriers were breached on January 6th, 2021, Americans knew something had profoundly changed. Sedition Hunters is the fascinating, high-stakes story of what happens next.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Crime, True Crime, Law

378 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long and meandering. Extremely important topic and I did learn a lot, but it would have benefitted greatly from much stronger editing and a professional audiobook narrator.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keep up the good work, join the good work, do not stop shadowing the 1500 pardoned criminals in all these ways. We cannot afford to lose sight of the ugliness despite the shift at the top. We are not off the hook or out of danger by any stretch...the examples and the morals of these folks are not to be betrayed now by not continuing the good work they did despite the betrayal at the very top.

“The essence of a democracy is that each citizen gets to express his views, exercise his choice with the right to vote,” {a judge} said. “What you were trying to do was undo the indisputable result of other people’s votes and to do it by force. And you were trying to stop the singular thing that makes America America, the peaceful transfer of power. That’s what "stop the steal’ meant. And that’s exactly the opposite of what the Constitution means.”

“Over the course of...thirty months, about 594 defendants pleaded guilty to at least one federal charge, and another ninety-eight were found guilty at contested trials. Of the 561 defendants who were sentenced, 335 were given periods of incarceration. At that point, online sleuths said, nearly 1,000 additional Jan. 6 participants who committed chargeable conduct at the Capitol had been identified, but not yet arrested. (emphasis added) That number included more than 100 rioters who were featured on the FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage.”

Do you listen to true-crime podcasts? Today's the day to try your hand at sleuthing. There's no reason to let your skills get rusty while the current regime is in power. Those in power are not going to do the sleuthing now when they wouldn't then. It is worth remembering that literal hundreds of tips that January 6th was going to get bad were given to law enforcement...and ignored. Use your internet skills to keep tabs on these people, keep watching what they say they're going to do, and believe them when they say out loud what their plan is.

It might not prevent whatever is planned, but good records will always help a reckoning come about.

It really is up to us. Read this (overcomplicated, if well-sourced) book to see how effective collective action can be.

[Brett Milam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even while the events of January 6, 2021 were still unfolding and police had yet to officially re-take and clear the U.S. Capitol, then-President Donald Trump, in a pre-taped message to his supporters, said, “We love you. You’re very special.” From that moment on, including to the present day with House Speaker Mike Johnson recently releasing 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage for public consumption, apparently thinking it exculpatory, grifters, craven politicians, and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Trump, have all tried to recast Jan. 6 as either a peaceful protest (a mere tour of the Capitol), “.. the things and events that happen” when an election is “stripped away from great patriots” as Trump Tweeted that day, the work of antifa, and/or the work of undercover federal agents and the deep state. As usual when it comes to the MAGA crowd, cognitive dissonance (justified patriots! actually, it was antifa!) doesn’t matter. In any event, the fact that Jan. 6 remains a hotbed of discussion and revisionism makes Ryan J. Reilly’s 2023 book, Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System, all the more vital and a clarion call to the dangers within and outside of the justice system.

More than 3,000 people are suspected of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a misguided, conspiracy-addled effort to stop Congress and particularly, then-Vice President Mike Pence (“Hang Mike Pence!”), from counting the Electoral College votes and formalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. They turned what was normally a rote, uneventful day into one of the most horrific, heinous affronts to American democracy in our history, and the first time the United States failed to have a peaceful transfer of power between presidents. Almost as troublesome as those who have a revisionist view of Jan. 6 in trying to rationalize the actions of the “patriots” who violently stormed the Capitol, attacked police, ransacked the place, and stole property, all in an undemocratic bid to keep Trump in power, are the centrists who think everyone else is “overreacting” to the events of Jan. 6. As is well documented, if not for some dumb luck and the heroic efforts of Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, the day could have been much worse than it already was. If anything, the American public at large has not fully reckoned with just how violent that day was.

One of the under-told stories, though — after all, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack held riveting hearings on the attacks, but primarily focused on the actions, and lack of actions, of Donald Trump during the attack, which was certainly important to detail — is what Reilly’s book concerns: the FBI’s inability to properly deal with the scope of Jan. 6. Again, 3,000 people are thought to have entered the Capitol (and many more presumably were illegally on the grounds outside the building itself), and even though many of the rioters were morons who filmed themselves, you’re still talking about scores of video to examine, hundreds of thousands of tips, the fact that many of the rioters left the Capitol and dispersed throughout the country, and that there was a quick effort to clean the Capitol and in so doing, inadvertently clean evidence. Add in the political pressure and minefield of going after supporters of the President of the United States, it was a difficult time for the FBI under the best of circumstances, but Reilly also highlights two very specific issues that bogged down the FBI’s response to the Jan. 6. attacks:

- The FBI, like any government agency, particularly one of its size, is a bureaucracy, and as such, it moves exceedingly slow, often opaquely, and is behind the curve on technology. The FBI was not technologically equipped to handle the mountains of video evidence in the most literal sense, as Reilly documents with respect to file sharing services, and even embracing open source research, i.e., publicly available video that these morons were happily posting to social media sites. This created impediments and lag time between the sedition hunters and the FBI.
- Most troubling to me, however, is that the FBI had to deal with people within their own organization, mostly in the field offices throughout the country, who were on the side of the Jan. 6. rioters, or at least, somewhat sympathetic, and therefore, not willing to rise to the task of hunting them down. Reilly talks about one FBI agent who parlayed his disgruntled attitude over the case against J6ers into a podcasting career. On one hand, I’m glad that the overall institution seemed to move forward in a justice-minded sense, but it’s still alarming to consider a.) how many FBI agents were and are sympathetic to the Jan. 6 defendants, and b.) how many of the Jan. 6 rioters had a previous law enforcement or military background. It makes you wonder, right? Yes, the guardrails held this time, ultimately, but what about next time?

All of those issues, including the two primary ones aforementioned, make the “sedition hunters,” the focus of Reilly’s book, vitally important, and is what gave me a sense of optimism in reading his book, incidentally. That is, yes, Jan. 6 was awful, and yes, it was abhorrent to see how quickly the then-president and his minions in Congress and on cable news started either rationalizing their actions and/or castigating antifa as the culprits (rioters on Jan. 6 who expressly went there in support of Trump would do the very same thing!). But there was also a slew of sleuths, if you will, who reacted with appropriate dismay and anger at the Jan. 6 attack and parlayed that into becoming sedition hunters: tracking down through open source research the perpetrators. They sifted through hours of publicly available video and social media posts, catfished on Bumble (one of my favorite sections of the whole book), created nicknames for easily-identifiable culprits, and then sent in those tips to the FBI, often being named in affidavits and complaints filed against Jan. 6 defendants. Heck, one of the most prominent sleuths, who created an app to better centralize all of these efforts and comb through the data with the help of facial recognition software, was a Trump voter. Such is the complexity of the American voter’s mind. These sleuths, these sedition hunters, gave me hope. That there are still sane people in America, and they weren’t going to sit by after Jan. 6 without doing something about it. Without their steadfast efforts, I’m not sure the FBI would have had as many cases and convictions as it did and continues to. (Perhaps the most wild fact about Jan. 6 is that the pipebomb culprit still hasn’t been uncovered, surely owing in part to the fact that the person actually wore a face covering. This despite the FBI upping the reward at the start of 2023 to $500,000 for information.)

Reilly is a Justice Department reporter for NBC News, who I first became familiar with in 2014 when he, along with another journalist I was following, Wesley Lowery, then with The Washington Post, were arrested by Ferguson police while covering the protests over Michael Brown’s death. I think Reilly was primed for covering the events of Jan. 6 in some ways because of his Ferguson experience: a.) on-the-ground reporting experience, and the chaos of understand fast-moving events and in turn, sifting through reams of data; b.) he was with The Huffington Post at the time, which as Reilly quips in his book being that it was new media, baffled the FBI, but served him well here; and c.) unlike a bureaucracy with its old ways, Reilly was willing to take seriously the “sedition hunters.” Amateur sleuths, as Reilly details, have gotten it terribly wrong in the past, most notably redditors with the Boston bombing suspects, but with Jan. 6, they were getting real, verifiable results.

Sedition Hunters, though, isn’t just about the response to Jan. 6, but also how federal law enforcement failed in the run-up to, and on the day of, Jan. 6. As Reilly indicates, there was plenty of encrypted chatter from right-wing groups, such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, along with then-President Trump making Jan. 6 out to be a last ditch effort to stop the certification of Biden as the next president and how it will be “wild.” Of course, something law enforcement rightly has to contend with is what is protected speech, aka “just talk” versus what is an actionable, imminent threat. While that is difficult to parse, and I’m always going to vociferously err on the side of protecting free speech, even despicable speech (especially despicable speech, as that’s kind of the whole point), I think it should have been obvious to better protect the U.S. Capitol. However, I suspect some level of hubris went into the issue. Nobody could imagine that the Capitol of all places could be overrun, so they didn’t fortify it. Reilly also makes a good point that the FBI was so laser focused on lone wolf attacks (and you can understand why) that they didn’t have the imagination for collective violence, i.e., the mob violence enacted on Jan. 6. Maybe it’s as simple as those factors. Or, in addition, as Reilly writes, there’s also the issue of domestic terrorism, particularly ring-wing domestic terrorism. The incentives just aren’t there in the same way as there are for going after foreign terrorism, and there’s the added aforementioned political minefield of going after ring-wing domestic terrorists.

I understand that, again as Reilly outlines, the Republican Party has long flirted, often overtly, with “concerns” over rampant voter fraud and ensuring poll watchers are present as polling places, rhetoric and efforts that long pre-date Trump’s takeover of the GOP. That “concern” and the often unconstitutional dabbling in poll-watching isn’t new for the Republican Party, nor is it new for Trump to complain when he loses an election (or whatever it happens to be) and claims it was rigged against him. And yet, I still can’t wrap my head around fashioning yourself a patriot who is not only willing to storm the Capitol on Trump’s behalf, but are also willing to die on his behalf (so they claim). Like I said, many of these people are so deep in conspiracy theories and whatever other issues they might have (including the hallmarks, domestic violence and child porn), that they become convinced of Trump’s correctness and the evilness of anyone who opposes him. When you really get into the weeds of it, as Reilly does in the book, it’s frightening. Yes, it can be funny because of how absurd these people can be, like on page two, the furries guy (enough said) or the Bumble catfishing, but how impenetrable the façade these folks have erected to rationalize their support of Trump and the actions therein at the Capitol, even after being convicted and sentenced to prison, is astoundingly upsetting. It’s like, what do you even do in response to that? Yes, we can hold the relatively (compared to Trump’s overall support, like the 74.2 million Americans who voted for him in 2020) small contingent willing to be violent on Trump’s behalf culpable — and again, Reilly’s explained in-depth with his book how difficult that’s been for the FBI to ensure — but what about everyone else in these fever swamps of conspiracy thinking and false beliefs? For nearly nine years now, many of us have been trying to find the answer to that question, and even nearly three years after seeing it coalesce into the awful, unprecedented events of Jan. 6, and the fever still not breaking, I’m not sure we have any good answers.

The best we can do is embody the spirit of the sedition hunters: defend democracy (I get that it sounds cheesy, but it’s also a very salient and real), the rule of law, and holding those who break the law accountable, up to and including the former president of the United States.

Reilly’s book, written as the aftermath of Jan. 6 is still unfurling (the statue of limitations runs out in 2026), is nevertheless of the utmost importance to read. If watched Jan. 6 unfold in real time and were angry and aghast like I was, or you sat through the House Committee on the January 6 Attack’s hearings, like I did, you may think you’ve seen and read it all about Jan. 6. But Reilly’s book proves there is so much more to the story with vital lessons, both good and bad, for the country. I also have to say, Reilly has a way of writing that makes reading a book about Jan. 6. accessible, often times even fun and funny, while still being hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and thorough. I can’t recommend Sedition Hunters enough.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 I found it lacked focus, 50% into the book I was like 'where are the cool techniques that the hunters used?'

[Jeremy Peers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating and infuriating look at January 6th and some of the aftermath. Sedition Hunters elicited a wider range of emotions than just about anything I've read. It took a while to get through due to said emotions and the fact the book could use more formatting. Reading Sedition Hunters was a little like watching a tennis match in book form. Sedition Hunters might be a book better suited for a time when we are out of this mess. Reading it currently is just depressing and enraging.

Thank you to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Sedition Hunters.

[DaughterOfPoseidon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sedition Hunters follows the events of January 6th, and how it not only showed weak spots in the justice system, but how it also overwhelmed huge organizations like the FBI.

Non-fiction has never really been my thing, but this book excited me. I was still in school when the events of January 6th unfolded, and I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around what was happening. I couldn’t understand why everyone was freaking out, or why it was such a big deal.

Reading this book helped clear the air for me. Reilly started from the very beginning (2016) and worked his way up to the horrible events that changed the justice system forever. It was all very organized, with little sparks of humor that made me smile.

I’m someone who looks at things as best I can from an unbiased angle, but this kinda made me mad at the FBI. An organization that so many shows have been based on, a firm that is so highly respected and trusted, didn’t think that a Trump rally was going to end the way it did.

Even after hundreds of tips came in informing them of such an event.

Overall, I would recommend this book to any adult who is interested in the subject, or who loves non-fiction.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5
This was a very interesting story how regular, tech-wise citizens helped the FBI find the insurrectionists who infiltrated the Capitol on January 6. (If the FBI were more tech-savvy, 9/11 and January 6 might have been thwarted.)
These actual patriotic citizens used social media, facial recognition technology, developed computer programs to help find people who cause damage and injury on that fateful day. There was even one woman who changed her dating profile specifically to attract notice of some who took part in the riot. It worked!
My quibbles have to do with the amount of names of insurrectionists used that would be mentioned at one point then not again for another 50 pages (hard to keep track of who's who) AND the amount of acronyms used which, again, I had a hard time remembering.
I wonder if following one person's story all the way through, perhaps per chapter, might have mad it a little more cohesive for me.

[Elizabeth Stolar · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/7. This was an interesting book, although I think the subtitle is a bit off -- rather than breaking the Justice system, I think Jan 6 exposed weaknesses of the justice system. It was pretty shocking to learn that the FBI's technology is so behind the times, although perhaps this should not have been.

I found the general story of the sedition hunters to be an interesting one -- I'm amazed by all of the internet crime sleuths who are every day people who sit at home and work on solving crimes as a hobby. I've heard of several of these instances before, although the Jan 6 seditionists cases is the largest example. While these can cause problems, such as when someone is wrongly identified and doxxed, it's pretty impressive how much people are able to accomplish.

The seditionists themselves are really a dangerous bunch of wackos. What a disaster it will be if Trump gets back into office.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN INFORMATIVE ACCOUNT OF THE CITIZENS WHO TRACKED DOWN THE RIOTERS

Reporter Ryan Reilly wrote in the Preface to this 2023 book, “Since a mob of Donald Trump supporters whipped up by his lies about the 2020 election stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, I’ve immersed myself in the communities of online sleuths who are driving the FBI investigation… I’ve spent months getting to know the sleuths…. I’ve covered the Justice Department for more than a decade, and I’d talked with FBI informants before. But none of them hold a candle to the impact the Sedition Hunters have had… this group of anonymous Americans have been working to hold the FBI’s feet to the fire to make sure these cases don’t get buried… They’d scour Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Rumble, Gab, and Telegram. Venmo, the payment app… proved particularly useful in making connections. Facial recognition played a big role… Fresh video was the lifeblood of the investigation… [But] A lot of rioters did a frustratingly solid job of keeping their face covered the entire time they were at the Capitol.” (Pg. 6-8)

He states, “The beating heart of the largest FBI investigation in American history isn’t in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, or in Quantico, or in [a]… drab federal office building… It’s in places like Alex’s garage… Alex stumbled upon some of the budding efforts to identify the rioters, watching as social media users began collaborating online… His brain started churning. ‘How do you organize all this material? … Alex … had an app to launch… The sleuths accomplished all this, in no small part, thanks to an app Alex had whipped up in his garage. Alex’s app was one of the main tools of the manhunt: driving investigations, organizing information, generating new leads. Oh! One other thing: Alex voted for Donald Trump. Twice.” (Pg. 1-3) He continues, “The clock on the statute of limitations was ticking, and the feds were quickly approaching the halfway mark… Some sleuths had formalized relationships with the FBI… Sedition Hunters were building entire cases for the FBI… but the bureau’s rules made it difficult for special agents to offer even basic updates on the status of investigations… Politics was clearly playing a role… There had long been rumblings about certain FBI field offices being less than enthusiastic about [investigating] Capitol attack cases.” (Pg. 4-5)

Of ‘poll watchers’ and similar persons, he explains, “Summoning random people to rush down to a location where they believed Democrats were perpetuating a criminal conspiracy … led to some problems. Many of those who arrived had no clue about the basics of how vote counting works or the procedures for challenging them. One GOP poll challenger … went through ‘about 20 minutes of training’ before being handed credentials…. Lack of experience aside, there’s a constant assumption of fraud throughout the hundreds of pages of affidavits later filed by the Trump campaign.” (Pg. 55)

He recalls, “Trump, of course, won the 2016 election, securing more than three hundred electoral college votes. Even so, his ego wouldn’t allow him to concede that he’d lost the popular vote … insisting that he would’ve won that too had it not been for [a] massive, secret epidemic of voter fraud.” (Pg. 65) In 2020, “Trump continued to spread fear about voter fraud and continued to refuse to commit to the peaceful transfer of power if he lost.” (Pg. 66)

After the election, “[Attorney General] William Barr knew the ‘bulls---t’ that Trump lawyers, whom he thought of as buffoons, were spewing was having a major impact. Millions of people including the president, couldn’t or wouldn’t see what a joke the Trump campaign’s effort was. Yet the Justice Department remained silent.” (Pg. 98) He continues, “the claims of fraud Barr saw ‘were completely bogus and silly and usually based on complete misinformation.’ … ‘It just didn’t look to me like the results of the election were the result of fraud. It looked to me that the difference in the vote were in the suburbs… and that’s what happened, in my mind,’ Barr said … after the election.” (Pg. 99)

He notes, “the threat of Jan. 6 did not begin in earnest until after Dec. 11, when the Supreme Court rejected what was thought … to be Trump’s last-ditch effort to overturn the election results, and it grew even more serious after Dec. 14, when electors met… to formally cast their votes… At that moment, Trump and his constituents reached a new level of desperation.” (Pg. 115)

He observes, “Over the course of the Trump presidency, those in the domestic terrorism space [of law enforcement] had seemingly built up an immunity to the alarm bells. The constant drumbeat of threats could be exhausting, and an environment that once seemed unimaginable had become commonplace… and now law enforcement were the metaphorical frog in the boiling water.” (Pg. 153) He points out, “The law enforcement posture with groups like the Proud Boys looked much different than it did with loosely affiliated left-wing groups. The Proud Boys ‘always want to make it look like they’re law enforcement’s friends,’ while antifa says, ‘F--- the police.’” (Pg. 180)

On January 6, “Trump … was on the phone with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House leader… who was urging the president to get on television and call off the mob… ‘Well, Kevin, these aren’t my people,’ Trump told him. ‘These are Anifa.’ McCarthy … tried to introduce reality, saying that these were Trump supporters, that staffers were running for their lives, and that the president needed to call off the mob. ‘Well, Kevin.’ Trump said, ‘I guess they’re just more upset about the election theft than you are.’” (Pg. 195)

Biden said, “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol… We all know that’s true. And it’s … totally unacceptable.” (Pg. 215-216) DC police lieutenant said, “You know its f-----g bad when [Alex Jones] was the voice of reason and they wouldn’t listen to him…’ ‘We’re not antifa, we’re not BLM,’ Jones had said at the Capitol. ‘Let’s not fight the police and give the system what they want.’” (Pg. 219)

Acting US Attorney Mike Sherwin explained, “Social media absolutely helped, where we picked off the Internet stars; you know, the rebel flag guy; Camp Auschwitz; the individuals in Pelosi’s office… The easily identifiable individuals that we were able to quickly find and charge.” (Pg. 225)

He recounts, “Slowly the [FBI] began improving their social media presence. Resurfacing images to expose them to the audiences that might not … [be] checking the FBI’s website… online investigators were compiling multimedia databases that tracked suspects’ every move… The Sedition Hunters network was chugging along, churning up plenty of solid leads on suspects and they were submitting them to the FBI.” (Pg. 235-236) He adds, “Regular citizens would become the most effective tool in the FBI’s Jan. 6 investigation.” (Pg. 249) He continues, “The sleuths, using tools like Alex’s app, would affect hundreds of investigations. There are people in prison right now who might not be there but for Alex’s app… Alex said of the sleuthing effort, ‘[These]… people love their country, and who saw that happen that day at that building that means something to me, and that’s what got us involved.’” (Pg. 262-263)

He summarizes (as of July 2023). “Over the course of those first thirty months, about 594 defendants pleaded guilty to at least one federal charge, and another ninety-eight were found guilty at contested trials. Of the 561 defendants who were sentenced, 335 were given periods of incarceration. At that point, online sleuths said, nearly 1,000 additional Jan. 6 participants who committed chargeable conduct at the Capitol had been identified, but not yet arrested. That number included more than 100 rioters who were featured on the FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage.” (Pg. 383)

This book will be “must reading” for anyone studying the aftermath of the January 6th riot.

[MM Suarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The essence of a democracy is that each citizen gets to express his views, exercise his choice with the right to vote,” Jackson said. “What you were trying to do was undo the indisputable result of other people’s votes and to do it by force. And you were trying to stop the singular thing that makes America America, the peaceful transfer of power. That’s what "stop the steal’ meant. And that’s exactly the opposite of what the Constitution means.”

I was somewhat disappointed with this book, while the idea of regular citizens (Sedition Hunters), playing an important part in helping the federal government in identifying the criminals that attacked the US Capitol was very interesting to me, most of this book is just a lot of repetition of information we've heard before, and it does not go into a lot of detail about the Sedition Hunters themselves.

[Carol Kearns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. I recognized some of the names that have been sentenced since its writing. Pretty fascinating info on the everyday people that have used the technology that the FBI has not been willing or able to harness in order to track down rioters at the Capitol on January 6, 2020.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing story! The "Hunters" are beyond amazing. We -- not just those of us in the United States, but world wide because of the damage the former president could do if he ever returned to power would cause horrific changes throughout the world -- owe them such a debt of gratitude. I've long enjoyed reading how retired people, not just police officers, but others who put their skills to solving cold cases. There was one man I read about surprisingly in an AARP magazine who solve a cold case over 20 years old of a missing teenager based on his drawings of a body that was found and how dirt on her shoes matched the soil where she lived before she disappeared. I didn't explain that very well, but it is a story that stuck with me. The Sedition Hunters went far beyond what I've read in the solved cold case stories. What an outstanding group of really unsung heroes and heroines for us. Reilly tells their story from the earliest days -- well earlier than the insurrection on January 6. He tells their stories, he relates in a clear, understandable and engaging voice anyone can understand. Of course you would expect that from a journalist but even journalists can write a bit dry and over your head. Reilly takes his readers into the minds of the Hunters, he explains some of their methodology without giving away secrets. This is a must read for anyone and everyone from junior high up.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

🎧The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice never has had to deal with anything like the Jan. 6 attacks. There were hundreds of cases of investigate, which was a challenge not only for the sheer numbers but also for the FBI’s antiquated technology. Our smartphones are better equipped than the FBI’s which couldn’t handle receiving even modest-sized video files.
Enter the Sedition Hunters.
These citizen volunteers used the internet to find Jan. 6 rioters, using photo searches and often based on the smallest of hints, such as an inscription on a piece of clothing. They were relentless and clever - my favorite hunter was a woman who used a dating app to lure Jan. 6 participants.
The FBI came to rely on these citizens who didn’t have the same bureaucratic issues that they had to deal with.
Reilly sometimes meandered a little but that’s a minor complaint. He got to know both the investigators and the investigated.

[Alex Nagler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever get really upset that Jan 6 folks didn't get booked with domestic terrorism?

Yeah, me too.

[Ellen Cutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this over January 6, 2023 was perfect.

"Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke The Justice System" by Ryan J. Reilly is, perhaps, a somewhat misleading title. The justice system, which is to say the resources of law enforcement (local and federal), intelligence, and the courts were all pretty busted up before January 6, 2021. What this book does--and it is an invaluable thing--is demonstrate just how imperfect the system is in this country and how much it is distorted by systemic racism and political extremism.

Reilly does a splendid job taking us back to that grim day and the circumstances leading up to it. In doing so, he provides an analysis of just why it took so long to bring the main force behind the attack--Donald J. Trump--to face charges for his part in those seditious events. And the basic reason for it all is that the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are byzantine in organization, paranoid rather than collegial in terms of relations with other parts of the government, and technologically firmly in the 20th century. Then, of course, there is the question of human power--and thus the "sedition hunters."

The mob that assaulted the Capitol, and the Representatives, Senators and staff that occupied the building was a far more numerous force than the police forces in attendance. If appropriate attention had been paid to warning signals, a larger and more effective defense might have been in place. But for many reasons, some of which Reilly reviews, no one was prepared. Therefore only a handful of trespassers and terrorists were physically detained. In the rush to repair the damage and clean the mess, essential forensic material was destroyed. Nothing that it takes to hold criminals responsible was done, or much done.

And if it wasn't for countless horrified citizens, many with time on their hands because of COVID, obsessing over hours of video posted on social media, cross-referencing data to identify and name members of the mob, few of the arrests and convictions that have taken place so far would have happened. It was thanks to one sedition hunter (called "Alex" by the author) who built an app to collect, quantify and cross-reference data, the 1200 who have been criminally charged and 980 who have been convicted would have gotten away. And the statute of limitations on the crimes will run out on January 5, 2026, five years after the event. So certainly there are hundreds, maybe a thousand or more insurrectionists who will never pay for their gullibility, their stupidity and their criminality.

The book is a riveting read. Those with sensitivities to cursing, and particularly to the F-bomb, might find the language a little too candid. I couldn't stop private expostulations over the archaic equipment and Illuminati-like secrecy that strangles the FBI and the DoJ.

So good. Great choice for anyone focused on this election year.

[Will Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that, as the premise convinced me the book would be, it had focused more on the civilians who helped the FBI investigation than other elements.

More vitally, I wish that the author had organized the reporting deftly instead of only ably. The beginning and ending chapters could have provided more satisfaction.

I wish that I was smart enough to discern how to choose books, which are deftly organized and written without finding myself have to more research than I prefer. Simply choosing to go by GoodReads ratings hasn't served that goal.

This book was interesting. But it could have been powerful and indelible. (Finally how did I choose the Kindle edition, when I haven't a Kindle?)

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was actually a pleasant surprise to me. The subject matter couldn't be more timely with the ongoing hoopla surrounding the election. We get to go on a deep dive into some of the perpetrators of J6 and learn their fates within the justice system. The only complaint I have about the book is the number of typos within the text. Besides that, it was a pleasure to read and well worth the time spent.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I was expecting this book to be more about the actual sedition hunters, but the whole first half is about January 6. It felt kind of like it was trying to record it for history, or maybe an international audience? It was a wild time and we know much more about it now than we did at the time, experiencing it live, but I was hoping this would spend more time on the aftermath.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, 4.5 stars, but since there's nothing I can specifically point to, I'll round up. Gave me an idea about how to stop the kids riding off-road dirt bikes on Philly Pike.

[David Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! The title is a little mis-leading. It's mostly a play-by-play of January 6th. Not complaining, but just saying. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in what happened that day and how it was allowed to happen. Mr. Reilly is fairly blunt with his words, so you'll probably get a few good chuckles from this as well. I say 4.5 stars, but it's good enough I'll round up to 5.

[Cozadhughesgmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book. If you care about preserving democracy, you should read this book now

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written book by a journalist who's been working on this amazing true story for literally years. Like many of my fellow Americans, I watched the events of Jan. 6, 2021 unfold on my computer and TV in "next-best to realtime" on the day they happened. I watched with with the same sense of horror and "this can't be real" I had on 9/11. Unfortunately, it was.

Thus, it was with considerable glee that I read the stories of the "sedition hunters," the ordinary people not unlike me, who knew or learned how to trace the digital "breadcrumbs" that would allow a confident identification for hundreds of the people who participated in that mob. I loved the nicknames that helped "many hands" (and sets of eyes) track the movements of seditionists such as #BullhornLady or #TaserPrick, then find them and turn them in to a hopelessly-overwhelmed and criminally digitally-hampered FBI.

This is an inside look at grassroots justice happening. It might be one of the most inspiring things I read in 2023.

[Matthew Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full Disclosure: I went to school with Ryan and I’ve followed his career.

This is a book that is bigger than what even the title suggests. Ryan highlights numerous events that should have been warning signs of what was to come on January 6, 2021. He shows just how corrupted the minds and hearts of those involved in the MAGA/QAnon cults truly are. He does not shy away from the failures of the DOJ/FBI/police to be proactive when it came to the domestic terrorism that saw an open rise between 2016-2021.

But on the other hand, he does a great job showing the everyday heroes who rose up in the wake of that day. Whether it was using their computers and technology to find these perpetrators or even those who did their jobs on that day in the halls of the Capitol.

[Marylouise · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot of interesting facts but the book did not flow well. It n ended to be edited better. I found it cumbersome. I wanted to learn more about the hunters than what happened on Jan 6.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and illuminating journey back to the infamous day of Jan 6. This account gives details about the events that inform and provide context to an otherwise incomprehensible day which played out on live TV. Reilly also helps to begin to give some closure to the many of us who feel that accountability for everyone who participated in the riot has been elusive. He exposes the seeming justification for the obvious and ridiculous lies that were (and still are) being told. Shout out to the Sedition Hunters who leapt into action to do their part to preserve our democracy. Thank you Ryan Reilly.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think you fully understand the events of January 6, 2021, you are mistaken. Read this book. Ryan J Reilly has presented a thoroughly researched accounting of the day, its aftermath and the events that led up to it. Reilly is a journalist covering the Justice Department for NBC News who has covered significant news events, such as the Ferguson protests in 2014. Sedition Hunters is a powerful book, presented so well that it is sometimes hard to believe that we lived through these events... it must all be a nightmare.

Because Reilly understands both the politics of our justice system and humanity, he was willing to understand, learn from and credit the amateur sleuths who were quickly engaged in a personal hunt for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on that horrific day. While the events were still happening, and long before people were even cleared from the building, Trump released a taped message, stating: “We love you. You’re very special.” This was quickly followed by his tweet that the election was “stripped away from great patriots." And people across the country, reeling in shock, started private searches for those who committed the crimes.

More than 3,000 people were/are sought by the FBI. The scope of the search so immense that it would be nearly impossible for them to find the rioters. The number of tips as well as the thousands of hours of video would make the investigation insurmountable.

And, while the FBI wasn't willing to give the home sleuths much credence at first, it quickly became clear that they were going to be a vital part of the inquiry. From the walls of their homes, these private citizens began sifting through hours of video, social media posts and more. They quickly began connecting the dots, and one of them even created an app that they used to aid one another, store information and stop duplicating efforts. (Ironically he had voted for Trump.)

This is a book that gives me hope. Instead of making the insurrectionists martyrs, or making them famous, the author presents to story of people who worked to defend democracy. This is about how people created accountability and defended the rule of law.

It's an impactful and provoking book, but it read easily, as the author has a fantastic writing style.

Thank you to the publisher for my #gifted hardcover copy! The review reflects my honest opinion.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sedition Hunters by Ryan J Reilly details the events of the day, largely through the work of the common citizens who discovered the identities of the traitors involved, and highlights how the justice system is broken.

I should say several of the ways in which the system is broken, and I'm not sure January 6th broke it, but it sure brought all of the flaws to the forefront. Outdated technology, not just in the area of actual investigation but also things as basic as very limiting caps on the size of attachments agents can receive in their email. Too many agents who consider their political leanings to be more important than their oath to enforce the law. An infrastructure and "functional" hierarchy that is both antiquated and dysfunctional. Prior to January 6th there was a reluctance to address domestic terrorism, though when the alleged threat of domestic terrorism was from the left there was never any hesitation to monitor anyone and everyone, from entertainment celebrities to MLK.

I didn't find this as disjointed as some readers did, that may be because I didn't have trouble following along with the events on that day being interspersed with stories about the sleuthing. That said, there were a few places I thought could have been tightened up a bit. Also, because I read the entire title, I didn't expect this to be exclusively about the sedition hunters, or the details of how they are accomplishing their goals. I read with an eye toward how the system was broken.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in the events of that day full of traitors, the work of the regular citizens who helped bring some of them to justice, and what needs to be done to fix the aspects of the system that are broken or, at best, function poorly. And you can read reviews from those who think everything is a conspiracy with more than just a grain of salt.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this one as an audiobook and found it fascinating but hard to hear. Reilly reported on Jan. 6 insurrectionists for NBC, so the book is intensively researched, but a bit slow getting started; I’m not sure we needed the incident itself recapped in excruciating detail again. The significance of Reilly’s reporting is in the story of those armchair investigators who tracked down the identities of the rioters—those who didn’t announce their names over a bullhorn or cut commercials for their realty businesses, that is—using film footage, social media, and fake Bumblebee accounts (too funny). Incidentally, the book offers some concerning takeaways that haven’t yet been addressed. One was the unforgivable unpreparedness of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to take action on intelligence *before* Jan. 6, which may relate in part to the second takeaway: the sympathy of some in law enforcement for those willing to take law into their own hands. Finally, the absolute lack of seriousness of many of the rioters whose interest in fucking things up would be trivial and laughable if not for their willingness to use violence to do it when surrounded by the protection of a mob. Many of those shouting “1776” at the Capitol couldn’t articulate any other reason beyond “Donald Trump told me to,” and when challenged by prosecution quickly blamed the incident on antifa or claimed they were misled or benighted. Reilly’s reporting allows the reader to see these frauds in all their glory; one that sticks out in my mind was the FBI employee who had changed his gender identification on his official paperwork for no other reason than to confuse and ridicule his own organization. People like this, with no respect for institutions or themselves, will make this country unlivable for a generation.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm trying to be charitable to Trump's earnest supporters, seeing them not as brainwashed imbeciles lacking in critical thinking and information literacy and blindly following a dangerous demagogue but instead as undeserving victims of globalization, who saw their livelihoods shipped off to China and then were denigrated by cultural elites in media and academia who mocked their white privilege and toxic masculinity. Thought of this way, their rage, misguided as it was, is at least explainable. Sure, Trump pandered to this demographic, but at least he acknowledged their existence.

None of this, of course, excuses what happened on January 6th when then-president Trump incited a mob of his followers to attempt a violent overthrow of the government and interfere with a change of power. So, there's a little bit of catharsis one feels in reading Reilly's Sedition Hunters and experiencing the moments that many of the domestic terrorists of that day faced consequences and prison time for their part in Trump's failed coup d'etat. Reilly is hardly impartial in his retelling of this terrible moment in U.S. history--I'm not particularly impartial in this review either--but he does a good job of presenting his exhaustive investigations as a journalist for NBC News into the lead-up to the coup, the failures in FBI intelligence that allowed it to occur, and, most notably, how a group of outraged citizens took to the internet to identify the various terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol. The book works well as both a historical chronicle and a damning indictment of law enforcement for not taking the clear threats seriously. Of course, the biggest question that remains from that day is why Trump himself wasn't in handcuffs by January 7th, but Reilly does an admirable job of showing how political ideology compromised the efforts to hold terrorists accountable in the aftermath.

It's not the fault of Reilly at all, but I think there will ultimately be a more comprehensive book about January 6th once more time has passed. Until then, Sedition Hunters offers plenty of new and familiar information about this horrible day and the impact of a horrible autocrat, who may one day be president again.

[Katherine Austin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an amazing subject and I'm super interested in it. So I was disappointed with this book. It seems to me that the author was in a BIG hurry to get this published and that the book was thrown together quickly and in a slap dash manner. The authors writing style made me wonder if he didn't just dictate the content - it's very slangly and verbal sounding, for example, "To be fair, the FBI had been through years of this crap, by this point..." It is poorly edited, there is a description of Abraham Lincoln 's funeral occurring "in April of 1965."

The first half of the book isn't even about the sedition hunters. It's about the lead-up to January 6. And it is equally scattered and anecdotal. If you want a cogent and compelling account of how Jan 6 happened, watch the report of the Jan 6 committee of the House of Representatives. The second half of the book deals with the sedition hunters and it's interesting but not comprehensive. It was not well organized, written in a conversational style and contained irrelevant material. Do we really need to know that a judge of one of the Jan 6 defendants lived in the author's dorm his freshman year?

To be fair, the author addresses an issue that Jan 6 committee was afraid to confront - the reluctance of some law enforcement personnel, especially in the FBI, to pursue the capitol rioters, and in some cases downright obstruction.