OATH KEEPERS LEADER GETS 18 YEARS
Conspiracy sentence increased for fitting terrorism definition
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for his conviction on seditious conspiracy charges for the role he played in helping to mobilize the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The sentence, handed down in U.S. District Court in Washington, was the most severe penalty so far in the more than 1,000 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack — and the first to be increased for fitting the legal definition of terrorism.
It was also the first to have been given to any of the 10 members of the Oath Keepers and another farright group, the Proud Boys, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the events of Jan. 6.
For Rhodes, 58, the sentence was the end of a tumultuous and unusual career that included Army service, a stint on Capitol Hill and a law degree from Yale. His role as the Oath Keepers’ founder and leader thrust him into the spotlight and will now send him to prison for what is likely to be the better part of his remaining days.
At a dramatic, nearly fourhour hearing, Judge Amit P. Mehta chided Rhodes for seeking for years through his leadership of the Oath Keepers to have American democracy “devolve into violence.”
“You, sir,” Mehta went on, directly addressing the defendant, “present an ongoing
threat and a peril to this country, to the Republic and the very fabric of our democracy.”
As the hearing opened, prosecutors urged Mehta to sentence Rhodes to 25 years in prison, arguing that accountability was needed for the violence at the Capitol and that American democracy was on the line.
Kathryn L. Rakoczy, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, told Mehta that Rhodes had been calling for attacks against the government for more than a decade and that his role in the Jan. 6 attack was part of a longstanding
pattern.
The Oath Keepers leader, Rakoczy said, exploited his talents and influence to goad his followers into rejecting the results of the 2020 election and ultimately mobilized them into storming the Capitol in two separate militarystyle “stacks” in a violent effort to keep then-President Donald Trump in office.
“It is conduct that threatened — and continues to threaten — the rule of law in the United States,” she said.
Rakoczy also noted that Rhodes had shown no remorse for undermining the lawful transition of power
and continued to advocate for political violence. Just four days ago, she said, Rhodes gave an interview from jail, repeating the lie that the election had been marred by fraud and asserting that the government was “coming after those on the political right.”
“It’s not going to stop until it’s stopped,” Rhodes said during the interview, adding that the country needed “regime change.”
As if to prove the government’s point, Rhodes gave a defiant address to the court, blaming the news media for demonizing the Oath Keepers
for leading the Capitol attack. He also compared himself to Soviet-era dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn and to the beleaguered main character in Franz Kafka’s novel “The Trial.”
“I am a political prisoner,” Rhodes said.
The hearing opened a week of sentencing proceedings for eight other members of the Oath Keepers who were convicted at two separate trials — in November and January — of charges that included not only seditious conspiracy but also the obstruction of a congressional proceeding to certify the 2020 election. One of Rhodes’ deputies, Kelly Meggs, who once led the group’s Florida chapter, was sentenced to 12 years in prison at a separate proceeding later Thursday.
In court Thursday, prosecutors persuaded Mehta to increase Rhodes’ sentence by arguing that his repeated calls for violence against the government and his plan to stage an arsenal of weapons outside Washington in case of an emergency on Jan. 6 should be punished as an act of terrorism.
“This wasn’t blowing up a building,” Rakoczy said. But “organizing an armed force” and advocating “bloody civil war” came “pretty close,” she said.
The government had asked to apply the terrorism enhancement in four previous Jan. 6 cases, but judges — including Mehta — had denied the requests each time.
The trial of Rhodes, Meggs and three other defendants — Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — was a milestone in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the Capitol attack. The convictions of Rhodes and Meggs on seditious conspiracy charges were the first time that federal prosecutors had won a sedition case since 1995, when a group of Islamic militants was found guilty of plotting to bomb several landmarks in New York.
At the beginning of the month, four members of the Proud Boys — including their former leader, Enrique Tarrio — were also convicted of seditious conspiracy and are scheduled to be sentenced in a series of hearings in August.