A federal judge sentenced this Thursday to 18 years in prison the leader and founder of the extreme right group Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, for seditious conspiracy and other crimes related to the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021: the attempted of coup instigated by Donald Trump to try to annul the result of the presidential elections of November of the previous year.
A Washington jury found Rhodes guilty of such crimes last November at the end of a two-month trial against a total of five leaders of the same violent group.
This Thursday is the first sentence for sedition handed down in the complex judicial process against those responsible for the largest insurrection against American democracy.
The seditious conspiracy charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
read also
“For decades, Mr. Rhodes, you have wanted democracy in this country to turn to violence,” US District Judge Amit Mehta said before handing down the sentence.
“You are not a political prisoner,” he also told him, but “a “continuing threat” to the United States.
You are not a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes, but a continuing threat to the United States.”
