Stewart Rhodes, founding father of the Oath Keepers, speaks throughout a rally exterior the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. Rhodes has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for seditious conspiracy within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
| Photo Credit: AP
The founding father of the Oath Keepers extremist group was sentenced on May 25 to 18 years in jail for orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a bid to maintain President Joe Biden out of the White House after the 2020 election.
Stewart Rhodes is the primary particular person charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy, and his sentence is the longest that has been handed down to date within the a whole bunch of Capitol riot circumstances.
It’s one other milestone for the Justice Department’s sprawling Jan. 6 investigation, which has led to seditious conspiracy convictions in opposition to the highest leaders of two far-right extremist teams authorities say got here to Washington ready to struggle to maintain President Donald Trump in energy in any respect prices.
Before handing down the sentence, the decide advised a defiant Mr. Rhodes that he’s a continued menace to the U.S., saying it’s clear Mr. Rhodes “wants democracy in this country to devolve into violence.”
“The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta mentioned.
It was one of the crucial consequential circumstances introduced by the Justice Department, which has sought to show that the riot by right-wing extremists just like the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest however the fruits of weeks of plotting to overturn Mr. Biden’s election victory.
Prosecutors had sought 25 years for Mr. Rhodes, who they are saying was the architect of a plot to forcibly disrupt the switch of presidential energy that included “quick reaction force” groups at a Virginia resort to ferry weapons into D.C. in the event that they had been wanted. The weapons had been by no means deployed.
In remarks shortly earlier than the decide handed down the sentence, Mr. Rhodes slammed the prosecution as politically motivated, famous that he by no means went contained in the Capitol and insisted he by no means advised anybody else to take action.
“I’m a political prisoner and like President Trump my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country,” Rhodes mentioned.
In a primary for a Jan. 6 case, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed with prosecutors to use enhanced penalties for “terrorism,” underneath the argument that the Oath Keepers sought to affect the federal government by “intimidation or coercion.” Judges in earlier sentencings had shot down the Justice Department’s request for the so-called “terrorism enhancement” — which might result in an extended jail time period — however Mr. Mehta mentioned it suits in Mr. Rhodes’ case.
Prosecutors argued {that a} prolonged sentence is important to discourage future political violence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy pointed to interviews and speeches Mr. Rhodes has given from jail repeating the lie 2020 election was stolen and saying it might be once more in 2024. In remarks simply days in the past, Mr. Rhodes referred to as for “regime change,” the prosecutor mentioned.
People “across the political spectrum” wish to consider that Jan. 6 was an “outlier,” Mr. Rakoczy mentioned. “Not defendant Mr. Rhodes.”
A lawyer for Mr. Rhodes, who plans to enchantment his conviction, mentioned prosecutors are unfairly making an attempt to make Rhodes “the face” of January 6. Attorney Phillip Linder advised the decide that Mr. Rhodes might have had many extra Oath Keepers come to the Capitol “if he really wanted to” disrupt Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.
“If you want to put a face on J6 (Jan. 6), you put it on Trump, right-wing media, politicians, all the people who spun that narrative,” Mr. Linder mentioned.
Another Oath Keeper convicted alongside Mr. Rhodes in November — Florida chapter chief Kelly Meggs — was anticipated to obtain his sentence afterward May 25.
Two different Oath Keepers, acquitted of the sedition cost however convicted of different offences, will likely be sentenced on May 26. And 4 different members discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy at a second trial in January are scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week.
The convictions had been a serious blow for the Oath Keepers, which Mr. Rhodes based in 2009 and grew into one of many largest far-right anti-government militia teams. Recruiting previous and current members of the navy and cops, the group promotes the assumption that the federal authorities is out to strip residents of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders in opposition to tyranny.
Mr. Rhodes’ sentence could forecast what prosecutors will search for former Proud Boys nationwide chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy alongside different leaders of his far-right group this month for what prosecutors mentioned was a separate plot to dam the switch of presidential energy. The Proud Boys will likely be sentenced in August and September.
Mr. Rhodes, 58, and the opposite Oath Keepers mentioned there was by no means any plan to assault the Capitol or cease Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. The defence tried to grab on the truth that not one of the Oath Keepers’ messages laid out an express plan to storm the Capitol. But 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 seen as a menace to the nation and their lifestyle. In an encrypted chat two days after the election, Mr. Rhodes advised his followers to organize their “mind, body, spirit” for “civil war.”
In convention name days later, Mr. Rhodes urged his followers to let Mr. Trump know they had been “willing 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 sounded like we were going to war against the United States government.”
Another man testified that after the riot, Mr. Rhodes tried to steer him to go alongside a message to Mr. Trump that urged the president not to surrender his struggle to carry onto energy. The middleman — who advised jurors he had an oblique strategy to attain the President — recorded his assembly with Mr. Rhodes and went to the FBI as an alternative of giving the message to Mr. Trump. Mr. Rhodes advised the person throughout that assembly that the Oath Keepers “should have brought rifles” on Jan. 6.
Before May 25, the longest sentence within the greater than 1,000 Capitol riot circumstances was 14 years for a person with an extended felony document who attacked cops with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the Capitol. Just over 500 of the defendants have been sentenced, with greater than half receiving jail time and the rest getting sentences corresponding to probation or dwelling detention.
Source: www.thehindu.com
