Quote (inkanddagger @ Aug 16 2017 02:41pm)
Oh I see. So Timothy McVeigh was just boys being boys. There was violence on the other side.
But I digress. Section 802 of USA PATRIOT wasn't in effect until the early 2000s. So I guess good old Tim wasn't a terrorist at all. But the neo-Nazis at this rally certainly were, by the very definition of U.S. law, which was expanded to include domestic in October of 2001.
The government provided a
definition of domestic terrorism. It provides no enforceable mechanism to prosecute, just to investigate. It ambiguously gives the option to seize assets, which has never been used, because it would be found unconstitutional.
This is not an unimportant nuance. I already pointed it out in my last post. If Jeff Sessions went to court to prosecute this driver on charges of "domestic terrorism", the first judge he met would toss the case out because that charge doesn't even exist.
Timothy McVeigh was not convicted on terrorism charges. He was convicted of "
conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction with the use of explosives and eight counts of first-degree murder"
McVeigh was a terrorist by colloquial definition and ex post facto PATRIOT act definition. He was not, however, a terrorist under legal definition.