'A Peril to This Country': Oath Keepers Founder Gets 18 Years for Jan. 6 Plot [View all]
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Source: Rolling Stone
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, whose members stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, has been sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy. The sentence is the longest yet for a conviction on charges related to the 2021 uprising.
Rhodes was convicted last November of the plot to block, by force, the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to President Biden. The trial exposed Rhodes’ revolutionary rhetoric in the buildup to Jan. 6 and his disregard for the lives of members of Congress who were in danger, encapsulated in his two word message to an associate: “Fuck ‘Em.”
Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had stockpiled weapons in hotels outside Washington, D.C. They hoped that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act, which they believed would empower them to become a legal militia force and take the fight to Trump’s enemies. In the aftermath of the violence of Jan. 6, Rhodes would tell associates that his only regret was not bringing weapons.
Coming into the hearing, the federal government was seeking a sentence of 25 years for the Oath Keepers founder, a former paratrooper and Yale Law graduate. Rhodes had sought leniency — a sentence of time served — absurdly citing the “public service” of creating the Oath Keepers.
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/oath-keepers-stewart-rhodes-sentenced-seditious-conspiracy-1234742020/
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