Stewart Rhodes led the Oath Keepers, one of the groups that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2020.
Oath-keeper founder Stewart Rhodes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for leading a week-long plot to keep former President Donald Trump in power, culminating in far-right extremists attacking the Capitol. 2011
He is the first person convicted of a seditious conspiracy to receive the final sentence, which set the flag for the army’s extremist group of future sentences. Prosecutors say Rhodes remains a threat to American democracy more than two years after he led a conspiracy to stop Trump’s transfer of power to President Joe Biden by force after the Republican lost the 2020 election.
In a court hearing Wednesday, police and congressional staff on Capitol Hill on January 6 recounted the physical and emotional trauma they still endure from being taken in hand-to-hand combat with rioters for hours or fleeing as mobs roamed the courts looking for lawmakers. and then Vice President Mike Pence.
Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November, while Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs and four other oath keepers were convicted of the rare crime in a second trial in January. The three Rhodian co-conspirators were acquitted of the seditious conspiracy, having been convicted of other charges.
It was one of the most important cases brought by the Department of Justice, as it tried to show that the defection of right-wing extremists as Oath Keepers was not an improper protest, but the sum of a conspiracy organized for weeks to overthrow the victory of the elections. of Biden.
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