Sentence for Oath Keepers’ Rhodes coming
Officers recount Jan. 6 riot before judge’s decision
WASHINGTON — Police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and public servants who fled the mob’s attack told a judge Wednesday that they are still haunted by what they endured, as the judge prepares to hand down sentences in a landmark Capitol riot case.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta heard victim impact statements a day before he’s expected to deliver the first Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy sentences to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and an associate convicted of plotting to block the transfer of power from President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors are seeking 25 years behind bars for Rhodes, which would be the longest sentence by far handed down among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
Metropolitan Police Officer Christopher Owens crossed paths with Oath Keepers members in Senate hallways as rioters invaded the building, shouted insults and threw projectiles at police. Owens recalled his wife bursting into tears when she saw the blood and bruises on his arms and legs after the riot.
“We experienced physical trauma, emotional trauma and mental trauma,” Owens said during the hearing in Washington’s federal court. “The traumas we suffered that day were endless.”
Rhodes scribbled notes on a yellow legal pad as he listened to the statements.
Terri McCullough, who was chief of staff to thenHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said rioters were trying to hunt down the California Democrat as her staffers hid in a conference room for hours, hearing chants and threats.
“The defendants violated our workplace, our government and our democracy,” McCullough said, adding, “Democracy succeeded.”
Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus, who was assigned to Pelosi’s security detail, said some of his co-workers have quit because of what they experienced.
“Lives and careers have been ruined and will never return to normal,” he said.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who encountered Oath Keepers in the Rotunda, said rioters turned the “citadel of American democracy” into a crime scene. Dunn said he is a “shell of his former self” and dreads coming to work every day.
While he still feels scarred by Jan. 6, Dunn said he found “a little relief” from the jury’s conviction of Rhodes and other Oath Keepers, adding that he is “profoundly grateful that, in this case, justice has been done.”
The judge also heard statements from Virginia Brown, who was a Senate chamber assistant and helped carry a box of electoral votes across the Rotunda on Jan. 6. As the mob breached the Capitol, Brown kicked off her shoes so she could run faster. She recalled fearing for her life and praying that she wouldn’t encounter any insurrectionists.
“I constantly relive the memories of that day,” said Brown, who was a college sophomore at the time. “I cannot measure how many hours of sleep I’ve lost.”
Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November alongside Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs after prosecutors spent weeks making the case that Rhodes and his extremist group followers had plotted an armed rebellion to keep Biden, a Democrat, out of the White House in favor of Trump, a Republican.
Rhodes, who didn’t go inside the Capitol, took the witness stand at trial and told jurors that there was never any plan to attack the Capitol and that his followers who did went rogue.