Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right group Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for inciting people to riot during the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021.
Rhodes’ sentence is the first of its kind. He is convicted of having been behind a several-week-long plot that ended with the Oath Keepers going to the front during the storming. The aim was to prevent the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States from being approved.
The sentence is the longest so far given after the attack. It is still milder than the US Department of Justice wanted. They wanted him to be sentenced to 25 years in prison, and believe he still poses a threat to the country.
Judge Amit Mehta agreed to give him an additional sentence for acts of terrorism, which in itself sets a new precedent in the court settlement after the storming in which five people died. The Ministry of Justice has wanted to establish that the attack was not a spontaneous incident, but an action that was planned for several weeks in advance. Among other things, the Oath Keepers are said to have had teams in place in Virginia that could transport weapons into Washington DC if necessary.
Rhodes himself believes that he is a political prisoner, and that his only crime is opposition to those he believes are destroying the country. He points out that he himself was never inside the congress building, and claims that he never encouraged others to do so.
Another Oath Keepers leader, Kelly Meggs, is expected to receive his sentence later Thursday.
