By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON — The founding father of the Oath Keepers extremist group was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in jail for orchestrating a weeks-long plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a bid to maintain President Joe Biden out of the White Home after the 2020 election.
Stewart Rhodes is the primary individual charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy, and his sentence is the longest that has been handed down up to now within the a whole bunch of Capitol riot instances.
It’s one other milestone for the Justice Division’s sprawling Jan. 6 investigation, which has led to seditious conspiracy convictions towards the highest leaders of two far-right extremist teams authorities say got here to Washington ready to battle to maintain President Donald Trump in energy in any respect prices.
Earlier than handing down the sentence, the choose informed a defiant Rhodes that he’s a continued risk to the U.S., saying it’s clear Rhodes “desires democracy on this nation to devolve into violence.”
“The second you’re launched, each time which may be, you may be able to take up arms towards your authorities,” U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta stated.
It was one of the vital consequential instances introduced by the Justice Division, 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 end result of weeks of plotting to overturn Biden’s election victory.
Prosecutors had sought 25 years for Rhodes, who they are saying was the architect of a plot to forcibly disrupt the switch of presidential energy that included “fast response pressure” groups at a Virginia resort to ferry weapons into D.C. in the event that they have been wanted. The weapons have been by no means deployed.
In remarks shortly earlier than the choose handed down the sentence, Rhodes slammed the prosecution as politically motivated, famous that he by no means went contained in the Capitol and insisted he by no means informed anybody else to take action.
“I’m a political prisoner and like President Trump my solely crime is opposing those that are destroying our nation,” Rhodes stated.
In a primary for a Jan. 6 case, U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed with prosecutors to use enhanced penalties for “terrorism,” underneath the argument that the Oath Keepers sought to affect the federal government via “intimidation or coercion.” Judges in earlier sentencings had shot down the Justice Division’s request for the so-called “terrorism enhancement” — which might result in an extended jail time period — however Mehta stated it matches in Rhodes’ case.
Prosecutors argued {that a} prolonged sentence is important to discourage future political violence. Assistant U.S. Legal professional Kathryn Rakoczy pointed to interviews and speeches Rhodes has given from jail repeating the lie 2020 election was stolen and saying it could be once more in 2024. In remarks simply days in the past, Rhodes referred to as for “regime change,” the prosecutor stated.
Individuals “throughout the political spectrum” wish to consider that Jan. 6 was an “outlier,” Rakoczy stated. “Not defendant Rhodes.”
A lawyer for Rhodes, who plans to enchantment his conviction, stated prosecutors are unfairly attempting to make Rhodes “the face” of January 6. Legal professional Phillip Linder informed the choose that Rhodes might have had many extra Oath Keepers come to the Capitol “if he actually wished to” disrupt Congress’ certification of the Electoral Faculty vote.
“If you wish to put a face on J6 (Jan. 6), you place it on Trump, right-wing media, politicians, all of the individuals who spun that narrative,” Linder stated.
One other Oath Keeper convicted alongside Rhodes in November — Florida chapter chief Kelly Meggs — was anticipated to obtain his sentence later Thursday.
Two different Oath Keepers, acquitted of the sedition cost however convicted of different offenses, will probably be sentenced Friday. And 4 different members discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy at a second trial in January are scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week.
The convictions have been a significant blow for the Oath Keepers, which 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 idea that the federal authorities is out to strip residents of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders towards tyranny.
Rhodes’ sentence could forecast what prosecutors will look 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 stated was a separate plot to dam the switch of presidential energy. The Proud Boys will probably be sentenced in August and September.
Rhodes, 58, and the opposite Oath Keepers stated 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 express plan to storm the Capitol. However prosecutors stated the Oath Keepers noticed a chance 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 risk to the nation and their lifestyle. In an encrypted chat two days after the election, Rhodes informed his followers to arrange their “thoughts, physique, spirit” for “civil conflict.”
In convention name days later, Rhodes urged his followers to let Trump know they have been “keen 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 appeared like we have been going to conflict towards the US authorities.”
One other man testified that after the riot, Rhodes tried to steer him to move alongside a message to Trump that urged the president not to surrender his battle to carry onto energy. The middleman — who informed 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 informed the person throughout that assembly that the Oath Keepers “ought to have introduced rifles” on Jan. 6.
Earlier than Thursday, the longest sentence within the greater than 1,000 Capitol riot instances was 14 years for a person with a protracted prison report who attacked cops with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the Capitol. Simply over 500 of the defendants have been sentenced, with greater than half receiving jail time and the rest getting sentences resembling probation or residence detention.
Richer reported from Boston.
