Preparations were under way here today for the trial on charges of sedition of William Dudley Pelley, notorious anti-Semite, who was seized in Darien, Conn., Saturday morning by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, operating under direct orders from Attorney General Biddle.
Pelley, the fifth person to be accused of sedition since the United States’ entry into the war, will be tried on three counts, B. Howard Gaughran, United States District Attorney here stated.
The first count, he said, alleges that Pelley attempted through publication of “The Galilean” to aid enemies of the United States. “The Galilean,” of which Pelley was editor, was published in Noblesville, Ind., by the Friendship Press of Indianapolis. This publication suspended several weeks ago when recent issues were declared non-mailable by the Post Office Department.
The second and third counts are that on two occasions Pelley “knowingly and feloniously did attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States,” Mr. Caughran added.
Conviction on the charge might lead to a maximum sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment or a $10,000 fine, or both, Mr. Gaughran said.
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