Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right, anti-government militia Oath Keepers, was condemned to 18 years in prison for the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress in which supporters of former US president Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of the presidential election, won by Joe Biden. His sentence is so far the longest in relation to the events of 2021. Rhodes was judged last November guilty of seditious conspiracy.
“What we absolutely cannot allow is a group of citizens who, because they didn’t like the result of an election, foment revolution,” said Judge Amit Mehta before issuing the sentence: “But that’s what you did ». And he added: “I dare to say, Mr. Rhodes, and I have never said it to any of the people I have condemned, that you represent a threat and a continuous danger to our democracy”. Mehta also said Rhodes, 58, has shown no remorse for what he has done.
“Seditious conspiracy” is a rarely prosecuted crime in the United States and is defined as a plot between two or more persons “to overthrow, overthrow, or forcibly destroy the government of the United States“: the last time anyone went to trial on this charge had been more than ten years ago. The maximum penalty is twenty years in prison.
Already about a month after the attack on Congress, an investigation by the US Justice Department had discovered and revealed how the assault on the Congress building had been anything but impromptu for many of the participants, and that behind it there were actually several groups organized as armed militias, trained and coordinated with each other to commit acts of violence. Among these were members of the Oath Keepers, which are a group made up mostly of ex-military and law enforcement members who had begun preparing the attack since the days following the 2020 presidential elections. The Oath Keepers, which means ” oath keepers“, are so called because they claim to be the only ones to truly respect the oath of allegiance to the Constitution that all military and police officers must take when they enter service.