Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes is sentenced to 18 years in prison

Stewart Rhodes, the chief of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in jail on Thursday for his position in January 6 riot on the Capitol.

Rhodes, 58, had been convicted of seditious conspiracy in a landmark felony trial in November that sealed the Justice Division’s potential to carry the rioters accountable and validated arguments that the breach of Congress was a menace to democracy.

He was additionally discovered responsible of obstructing an official continuing and tampering with paperwork.

District Courtroom Choose Amit Mehta dominated on Thursday that Rhodes’ actions on January 6 even amounted to home terrorism.

He mentioned that Rhodes was the mastermind behind the Oath Keepers’ breach of the Capitol, claiming the group wouldn’t have stormed the constructing and interrupted Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election if not for him.

‘Oath Keepers would not have been there however for Stewart Rhodes, and I do not suppose anybody contends in any other case,’ Mehta mentioned.

‘He was the one who gave the order to go, and so they went.’ 

In courtroom on Thursday, Mehta denied Rhodes’ claims that he’s only a political prisoner as he sided with federal prosecutors that Rhodes is a home terrorist who sought to affect the federal government by ‘intimidation or coercion.’

‘For many years, Mr. Rhodes, it’s clear you’ve gotten needed the democracy of this nation to devolve into violence.

‘You aren’t a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes,’ he mentioned, including that he believes Rhodes represents an ‘ongoing menace’ to the nation.

‘The second you’re launched, every time that could be, you may be able to take up arms towards your authorities,’ he continued.

‘What we completely can’t have is a bunch of residents who – as a result of they didn’t like the end result of an election, who didn’t consider the regulation was adopted correctly – foment revolution,’ Mehta mentioned earlier than handing down the sentence.

‘That’s what you probably did.’

Rhodes’ jail time period represents the longest sentence for any of the 1,000-plus individuals charged in reference to the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault by supporters of Republican then-President Donald Trump in a failed bid to dam Congress from certifying Democratic rival Joe Biden’s November 2020 election victory.

Till now, the longest sentence was 14 years in jail given to a Pennsylvania man who attacked police in the course of the rampage.

He’s additionally the primary to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy.

That doesn’t bode effectively for Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio who will probably be sentenced later within the day. 

Federal prosecutors had sought a sentence of 25 years for Rhodes, together with a sentencing penalty for committing terrorism.

They claimed he was the architect of a plot to disrupt the switch of presidential energy that included ‘fast response pressure’ groups at a Virginia lodge to ferry weapons to DC if wanted — although weapons had been by no means used.

The attorneys pointed to interviews and speeches Rhodes had given from jail, repeating claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that it could be stolen once more in 2024.

In remarks made simply days in the past, the attorneys argued, Rhodes known as for ‘regime change.’ 

‘Mr. Rhodes led a conspiracy to make use of pressure and violence to intimidate and coerce members of our authorities into stopping the lawful switch of energy following a presidential election,’ federal prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy mentioned.

‘Because the courtroom has simply discovered – that’s terrorism.’

However Rhodes’ protection lawyer, Philip Linder, argued that Rhodes might have had many extra Oath Keepers come to the Capitol if he ‘actually needed to’ disrupt Congress’ certification of the Electoral School vote.

‘If you wish to put a face on J6, you place it on Trump, right-wing media, politicians, all of the individuals who spun that narrative,’ Linder claimed. 

Previous to the sentencing, a defiant Rhodes stood earlier than Mehta, clad in an orange jumpsuit, and insisted that he’s a ‘political prisoner’ who, like Trump, was making an attempt to oppose individuals ‘who’re destroying our nation.’

‘I consider this nation is extremely divided. And this prosecution – not simply of me, however of all J6ers – is making it even worse. I think about each J6er a political prisoner and all of them are being grossly overcharged,’ he mentioned.

He additionally vowed to ‘to reveal the criminality of this regime’ from his jail cell.

Rhodes, who wears a watch patch after by chance capturing himself within the face along with his personal gun, based the Oath Keepers in 2009. 

The militia group’s members embrace present and retired U.S. army personnel, regulation enforcement officers and first responders. 

They’ve appeared, typically closely armed, at protests and political occasions together with racial justice demonstrations that adopted the 2020 homicide of George Floyd.

Prosecutors at the moment are asking Mehta to condemn Kelly Meggs, the group’s former Florida chapter chief, to 21 years in jail.

A few of the Oath Keepers breached the Capitol clad in paramilitary gear. Others at a suburban lodge staged a ‘fast response pressure’ prosecutors mentioned was geared up with firearms that might be shortly transported into Washington. 

Rhodes was on Capitol grounds that day however didn’t enter the constructing.

Two others related to the Oath Keepers, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson, are as a result of be sentenced on Friday. 

They had been acquitted of seditious conspiracy however convicted on different felony fees. 4 Oath Keepers members convicted of seditious conspiracy in a second trial are as a result of be sentenced subsequent week.

The decide postponed a sentencing listening to that had been scheduled for Wednesday for Thomas Caldwell, one other co-defendant acquitted of seditious conspiracy however convicted of different fees.

Rhodes and the opposite Oath Keepers have mentioned there was by no means any plan to assault the Capitol or cease Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. The protection tried to grab on the truth that not one of the Oath Keepers’ messages laid out an specific plan to storm the Capitol. 

However prosecutors mentioned the Oath Keepers noticed a possibility to additional their aim to cease the switch of energy and sprang into motion when the mob started storming the constructing.

Messages, recordings and different proof introduced at trial present Rhodes and his followers rising more and more enraged after the 2020 election on the prospect of a Biden presidency, which they considered as a menace to the nation and their lifestyle. 

In an encrypted chat two days after the election, Rhodes instructed his followers to organize their ‘thoughts, physique, spirit’ for ‘civil struggle.’

In convention name days later, Rhodes urged his followers to let Trump know they had been ‘prepared to die’ for the nation. 

One Oath Keeper who was listening was so alarmed that he started recording the decision and contacted the FBI, telling jurors ‘it gave the impression of we had been going to struggle towards america authorities.’

One other man testified that after the riot, Rhodes tried to influence him to move alongside a message to Trump that urged the president not to surrender his combat to carry onto energy. 

The middleman – who instructed jurors he had an oblique technique to attain the president – recorded his assembly with Rhodes and went to the FBI as a substitute of giving the message to Trump. 

Rhodes instructed the person throughout that assembly that the Oath Keepers ‘ought to have introduced rifles’ on January 6.