Senatorial arrests

One day after the formation of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, Imperial Intelligence arrested sixty-three Imperial senators on charges of conspiracy and treason. All those arrested were members of the Delegation of 2,000, a group of senators who made a failed bid to limit the growing executive powers of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine during the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Among those arrested were Senators Bail Organa and Mon Mothma; though the former escaped unscathed, the latter was detained in much less pleasant conditions. The arrests were reported on by the state-sanctioned HoloNet News, which declared the event a "dramatic victory over the Jedi rebellion." Most senators were released after pledging loyalty to the new regime, though some remained incarcerated.

Prelude

As the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems entered its final stages in the year 19 BBY,^[7] Republic Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine^[1]—secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious^[6]—continued to gain emergency powers from the Galactic Senate. In response, displeased with the Chancellor's increasing authority, former senators of the Loyalist Committee formed the Delegation of 2,000 to counter Palpatine's growing political power.^[1] The delegation crafted the Petition of 2,000, a formal protest to Palpatine's political gains and an effort to return emergency powers to the Senate at the war's end.^[3]

Palpatine eventually sent his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, to the planet Mustafar to destroy the Executive Separatist Council and shut down the Separatist Droid Army, effectively ending the Clone Wars. Meanwhile, before a gathering of the Senate, the Chancellor declared the Jedi, the guardians of the Republic, to be traitors and revealed the foiling of a supposed Jedi rebellion. With strong public support, Palpatine took the opportunity to proclaim that the Republic would be transformed into the first Galactic Empire, with himself ruling as Galactic Emperor—though certain senators, such as Bail Organa of^[6] the planet^[3] Alderaan and Padmé Amidala of^[6] the planet^[7] Naboo, only looked on with dismay.^[6]

The arrests

Crackdown

One day after the formation of the Empire, Imperial Intelligence,^[1] the state's espionage and anti-sedition agency, began a crackdown on Palpatine's political opponents on the Imperial capital world Coruscant. The agency conducted a mass arrest throughout Imperial City that eventually captured sixty-three senators—all signatories of the Petition of 2,000—on charges of conspiracy and treason. Those arrested were notable signatories of the petition, including several senators from prominent Core Worlds and many alien senators from the Outer Rim Territories.^[3] Several of those arrested were herded onto a Theta-class shuttle by Imperial clone troopers.^[1]

Following^[5] the initial day of the arrests,^[1] Senator Tanner Cadaman and most of those working in the senator's office were arrested within several days.^[5] However, one of his aides, Sohi—who had been operating as a Separatist spy within Cadaman's office—managed to evade arrest despite her absence being noted.^[8] Meanwhile Senator Ivor Drake was arrested shortly after Padmé Amidala's funeral.^[5] As the arrests continued days after the Emperor's proclamation,^[3] Shea Sadashassa of the astronomical object Herdessa, Fang Zar of Sern Prime, Streamdrinker of^[1] the planet^[9] Tynna, and dozens of other senators were arrested by Judicial Forces. After arresting Organa, security officers locked him in a comfortable cell, providing the senator with access to news feeds, datapads, and obliging to his requests. He was asked to pledge his loyalty to the new regime and to assure the public that the Emperor had legitimacy. Organa agreed for the sake of himself, his family, and for the sake of the wider galaxy,^[3] professing his loyalty.^[1] Despite this, he privately pledged to continue resisting the Empire.^[3]

Mothma's arrest

En route to a meeting with a freelance reporter, Mothma was intercepted by Judicial Forces halfway to the Imperial Executive Building and arrested. A number of officers ordered her to go with them, and she protested as she traveled to the Judicial Forces center. After she arrived, a pair of out-of-uniform officers took her into custody and forcefully placed her in a room she felt was reminiscent of a small closet or decommissioned toilet stall; the force of which knocked her against a wall and led her to almost collapse. Mothma remained alone, soiled, and in pain inside the small metal room for thirty hours until she was released and interrogated.^[3]

The interrogator informed Mothma that it was their role to thoroughly investigate anyone who belonged to the Delegation of 2,000 and other anti-government groups, those close to the Jedi, and those who had close connections with Separatists. The interrogator then revealed that despite Mothma's associations to these groups, the Judicial Forces found no evidence that she was a threat and so was presented with the option of either signing a loyalty pledge in return for her immediate release, or remaining in Imperial custody until a hearing was granted and a more thorough investigation took place. After Mothma signed the pledge, much to her dissatisfaction, the interrogator threatened her that the administration authorized them to bring her back in for questioning whenever they chose.^[3]

Aftermath

Immediate reactions

After the first day of arrests, HoloNet News,^[1] the official state-sanctioned news agency of the Empire,^[10] reported on the incident, labeling it a "dramatic victory over the Jedi rebellion." Before press time, a partial list of those taken into custody was released to the public.^[1] Ultimately, Streamdrinker and Mothma were not charged. Like Streamdrinker and Organa, some senators were released from detention unscathed, while other members of the Delegation of 2,000 avoided detention altogether. Following his arrest, Organa usually kept within the boundaries of political discourse, avoiding the terms "tyrant" and "massacre" in his speeches, even if implied. However, in more private settings, the Alderaanian loudly criticized the Empire, not caring if he was arrested again. Subsequently, Organa began investigating the Empire's framing of the Jedi after his arrest, as he still believed Palpatine's rise to power was detrimental.^[3]

Following his arrest, Organa held a media conference to both reaffirm his loyalty to the burgeoning Empire and to criticize what he described as "overzealousness" of the security forces. Organa's media conference led Mothma to resent him, as she personally retained emotional trauma from her own arrest. After Mothma's release, a droid reporter interviewed her from a crowd gathered at a tram station, asking her how the public could believe her sincere dedication to the Empire following her arrest on charges of disloyalty. Mothma parried before Senator Lud Marroi arrived and managed to dispel the questions, allowing the pair to leave. In the time afterward, Mothma often reflected on the trauma she had endured during her arrest and began taking anxiety medication to dispel the panic attacks associated with her mental flashbacks of the event.^[3]

The first meeting of the thirteen senators forming the Delegation of 2,000's leadership after the Empire's rise occurred after the arrests, in a more discreet location in Coruscant's TriOpt District: Senator Marroi's getaway. There, the group's leadership—including some members of the institutionalist and anti-militarist factions—met to discuss the fast and sweeping changes the administration was enforcing, and how they must continue to challenge Emperor Palpatine, while others expressed worries over the Empire's use of force to crush opposition. During this meeting, some members briefly spoke about their arrests in relation to their analysis of next steps. They ultimately resolved to collaborate under Mothma's leadership on the Imperial Rebirth Act bill to curb Palpatine's power, though the bill was eventually partially vetoed after passing.^[3]

Continued Imperial activity

Shortly after the arrests, Imperial Intelligence prioritized monitoring the 2,000 senators of the Delegation, including the sixty-three in the priority list provided as well as their staff, spouses, and associates. Intelligence supervisor Gerrus Bariovon oversaw the efforts of intelligence agent Haki Zeophrine and her forty colleagues as they monitored the senators for further acts of sedition with spies and electronic taps. Some senators, such as Mothma and Marroi, eventually became aware of these efforts and curbed what they spoke of to avoid further scrutiny. Around the same time, when Mothma was brought in for questioning a second time, she thought of her first arrest several times and struggled to maintain her composure after encountering the same official who had interrogated her previously.^[3] Around 18 BBY,^[11] Sohi reminisced on the arrest of her colleagues from Cadaman's office and her own evasion of the Empire to the Bad Batch members Hunter and Omega.^[8]

In response to the Ghorman Massacre^[12] in 2 BBY,^[13] Senator Dasi Oran of the planet Ghorman was arrested by stormtroopers, and Mothma evaded arrest after denouncing the Emperor directly in response to the massacre^[14] and resigned from the Imperial Senate to publicly lead the Alliance to Restore the Republic.^[7] Senators Sadashassa, Drake, and Cadaman were ultimately incarcerated at the Arrth-Eno Prison Complex on Coruscant,^[15] and Drake was pressured into identifying her allies, but she refused.^[5] All were executed there shortly after the Battle of Yavin, when a Rebel Alliance mission to assassinate Palpatine and rescue imprisoned senators sympathetic to the Rebellion went awry^[15] in 0 ABY.^[7]

Legacy

When his daughter, Leia Organa, became embroiled in the Rebel Alliance, Bail apprised her about the arrests as a warning about Palpatine. Later during the New Republic Era, Leia recounted what her father told her in her personal writings, Lessons from serving in Palpatine's Senate.^[16]

The Rebel Files, a non-electronic central data repository of sensitive rebel information compiled by archivist Hendri Underholt, documented Mon Mothma's recollections of the arrests. Within, Mothma recounted how she and Bail avoided being arrested after professing their Imperial loyalty. Mothma noted that her guilt over doing so motivated her to continue secretly opposing the Emperor and building up the Rebel Alliance.^[1] In 35 ABY,^[17] the historian Beaumont Kin wrote and published The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, a book that documented the Empire. Its first chapter, titled "Emperor Palpatine," mentioned the senatorial arrests and cited Leia's writings.^[16]

Behind the scenes

The senatorial arrests were first mentioned in the current Star Wars canon in Star Wars: The Rebel Files, a 2017 reference book written by Daniel Wallace.^[1] The event was originally introduced in the Star Wars Legends article "Republic HoloNet News Special Inaugural Edition 16:5:241," written by Wallace and Pablo Hidalgo for the eighty-fourth issue of the Star Wars Insider magazine^[19] on September 26, 2005.^[20]

The arrests were later mentioned in the 2025 novel Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear, written by Alexander Freed as the first installment of the Star Wars: Reign of the Empire trilogy.^[3] Freed consulted with Lucasfilm editors when researching the event's existing lore. As part of his research, he considered how severe the event should be in the novel and which senators should be included in the arrests. Freed hoped readers appreciated the effort that went into solving the "knot of complexity" around the topic in a way that felt satisfying to fans who knew existing lore well.^[18] The novel's editor, Tom Hoeler, expressed that the harshness of Mothma's arrest was intentional, having wanted to expound more on The Rebel Files' original lore and introduce disparity between Mothma and Organa's treatment during their detainment to instill conflict.^[21]

Appearances

• Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear (and audiobook) (Mentioned only)
• Sanctuary: A Bad Batch Novel (and audiobook) (Mentioned only)

Sources

• Star Wars: The Rebel Files (First mentioned)
• Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide
• Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire

Notes and references