Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for orchestrating what the Biden Department of Justice called a "seditious conspiracy" after a jury found sufficient evidence to convict and a judge rendered sentence.

U.S. district judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said Tarrio was motivated by "revolutionary zeal" to lead the conspiracy that resulted in "200 men, amped up for battle, encircling the Capitol" on January 6, 2021.  Noting that Tarrio had not previously shown any remorse publicly for his crimes, the judge said a stiff punishment was necessary to deter future political violence.

Judge Kelly further concluded that Tarrio's conduct constituted an official act of terrorism and applied an enhancement to his final sentence.

"Today's sentencing demonstrates that those who attempted to undermine the workings of American democracy will be held criminally accountable," said FBI director Christopher Wray.

By what standard of justice and by what standard of proof of anti-constitutional intent was Tarrio so sentenced?

In 1794, when the French Jacobins ramped up defense of their Republic of Virtue by terrorizing those who thought differently, they passed a law opening up the maw of voracious oppression to gorge upon the French people.  That law created a Revolutionary Tribunal to "punish the enemies of the people."

Passed on June 10, 1794, this law has been known to historians as the Law of 22 Prairial for the day and month of its passage according to the new Revolutionary calendar adopted by the National Convention as part of the transformation of France from monarchy to guided democracy.

Under this law, every citizen was authorized to "seize conspirators and counter-revolutionaries and to arraign them before the magistrates."  Every citizen was required to denounce the guilty "as soon as he knows of them."

Enemies of the people included, among others, those who sought to disparage or dissolve the "National Convention and the revolutionary government of which it is the center," abused the "principles of the Revolution or government laws and regulations by false and perfidious manipulations," deceived the people "in order to lead them into undertakings contrary to the interests of liberty," inspired "discouragement or disseminated false news in order to divide or disturb the people," or "misled public opinion or impaired the energy and purity of revolutionary and republican principles."

Finally, in a catch-all roundup of evil-minded malefactors, all those who "by whatever means or by whatever appearances they assume" had made efforts "against the liberty, unity, and security of the Republic, or who have labored to prevent the strengthening thereof" were declared enemies of the people.

Next, the Law of 22 Prairial made it easy to convict an accused.  Proof could be either material or "moral" — in other words, suspicion, slander, or prejudiced opinion would suffice to convict.  Once such "proof" was proffered, no witness could be called to testify in defense of an accused.

Proof necessary for conviction need only "secure the approval of every just and reasonable mind."  A judgment could follow the "conscience" of the jurors, who had to be enlightened by love of country and dedicated to the triumph of the Republic and the ruin of its enemies.

This law provided for a heinous tyranny that still lives in infamy among civilized peoples along with Stalin's Gulag, Hitler's Holocaust, and Mao's re-education camps.

Is something tending along these lines now what we want in our America?

The trials and sentencing of persons for what they did on Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol were at least superficially complicit with the Law of 22 Prairial.  Those accused by Democrats of making efforts against the "liberty, unity, and security" of a Democrat party government, or who had "labored to prevent the political strengthening" of such government, were judged guilty by others who may very well have been, in their conscience, "enlightened" by love of the Democrat party and "dedicated" to the triumph of the Democrat party over its enemies.

To go back to the 1794 origin of modern revolutionary justice as "Terror," one of the early victims of the Jacobins was Madame Roland, a moderate.  Her last words, spoken at the foot of the guillotine, were "Liberty: what crimes are committed in your name."

Image via Pxfuel.