Washington – A federal judge sentenced Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes to 18 years in prison on Thursday and approved a government terror promotion recommendation for his role in spearheading a seditious plot to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory that culminated in the violent assault on the US Capitol on the 6th. January 2021.
Rhodes’ sentence is now the longest yet imposed on an accused defendant in connection with the assault on the Capitol.
For the first time in the January 6 case, Washington District Judge Amit Mehta agreed with the government’s recommendation that an enhancement of terrorism be applied to the Rhodes ruling. Mehta agreed with the plaintiffs that Rhodes “inspired the use of violence” in his followers to disrupt testimony and that his behavior met the legal definition of terrorism aimed at influencing the actions of the government.
Mehta cited the stockpile of weapons the Oath Keepers had collected outside Washington, D.C. on January 6, as well as Rhodes’ orders for members to delete incriminating messages after the Capitol attack.
“You, sir, are a constant threat and danger to this country,” Mehta told Rhodes before handing down his sentence.
Prior to sentencing, Rhodes chose to address Mehta in defiant statements asserting his innocence and describing himself as a “political prisoner”.
“Like President Trump, my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country,” Rhodes said.
Stuart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017.
AP Photo/Suzanne Walsh, File
In his own statements prior to sentencing, Mehta responded directly to Rhodes’ allegations that he was a political prisoner, saying instead that he was a “continuing threat to this country”.
“For decades, you’ve obviously wanted democracy in this country to turn violent,” Mehta said. “You are not a political prisoner. You are here because 12 jurors in Washington acquitted you of multiple counts and found you guilty of sedition.”
“It could have been a much uglier day,” he said on January 6. “People should not forget that.”
After the verdict, Rhodes’ attorneys said they did not agree with the ruling but also expected a much stronger ruling than what Rhodes received. They said that sentence speaks volumes for anyone convicted of sedition.
Before Thursday, the harshest sentence for a defendant charged in connection with Jan. 6 was 170 months, or just over 14 years.
The Justice Department was asking for 25 years for Rhodes, with the attorney general saying in court Thursday that the harsh sentence was crucial “to ensure respect for the rule of law and is essential to the survival of our democracy.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Raccoczi said Rhodes “drilled persistently into the minds of those in his conversations, the oath-keepers of the lie of election fraud, and the false need to act like the Founding Fathers in order to save in his opinion, our Constitution, and our country.” It was “neither the first nor the last time he would seek to orchestrate political violence in our country,” she said, and referred to remarks he made from prison just four days earlier to a protest gathered outside where he said it would take “regime change” to fix the mistakes made by the Biden administration. .
“It’s not going to stop until it stops,” Rakozzi said, quoting Rhodes’ remarks.
Rhodes was convicted of sedition conspiracy against the United States last November. A jury found that he and other members of the group played a major role in blocking the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The decision marked the first successful conviction of seditious conspiracy by a jury since 1995.
Justice Department prosecutors have asked for 25 years for Rhodes, their highest recommendation yet for an accused defendant in connection with the January 6 date.
In recommending sentencing to Mehta, they repeatedly argued that harsh sentences for all oath-keepers accused in the plot were necessary to deter possible future attacks against democracy.
Juries in two separate trials returned convictions against Rhodes and eight associates on a variety of serious criminal charges, although three of the group were acquitted of the most serious charge of sedition conspiracy.
Drawing on a collection of messages between group members discussing a “civil war” should Biden take office, prosecutors argued that Rhodes and his co-conspirators were willing to take any action necessary, including the use of force, to stop the certification.
Prosecutors also presented extensive evidence of the group’s planning in advance on Jan. 6, showing how the members stashed a massive cache of weapons in a hotel just outside the city limits that the government said would be taken to Washington should Trump invoke the Insurrection Act.
Stemming from baseless allegations of election fraud, the defendants criticized the government in private conversations and social media posts.
Rhodes remained defiant in his statements before finally delivering his verdict on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the police officers who defended the Capitol and a Senate aide who held official 2020 election documents spoke in court to explain the continuing trauma they face after more than two years of rioting.
“We have been assaulted again and again,” Christopher Owens, a Metropolitan Police officer, told the court. He spoke of violent mobs that repeatedly seized his police equipment, even trying to take his gun.
His voice was filled with emotion, and Owens described returning home to his family and wife crying after seeing his bruised and battered body.
“We have been through physical trauma, psychological trauma and psychological trauma,” he said.
Mehta thanked each of the witnesses for their statements and their service to the government.
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