All articles tagged with #oathkeepers
A federal judge has sentenced Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. This is the harshest punishment to date for anyone involved in the violence, and more than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the attack.
Two Oath Keepers, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson, were sentenced to 8.5 years and four years in prison, respectively, for their involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Watkins recruited three others and was recorded on a walkie-talkie-style app saying she was walking with a group of about 30 to 40 people to the Capitol and “sticking together and sticking to the plan,” before she eventually met up with a group led by Kelly Meggs. Harrelson received firearms training with Meggs in Florida and served as “Meggs’ right-hand man” in setting up video meetings and relaying instructions to other Florida Oath Keepers about stashing weapons for a “Quick Reaction Force” if violence erupted.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes faces up to 25 years in prison at sentencing Thursday in the first punishments to be handed down for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. U.S. prosecutors asked for what would be the longest sentence by far in the rioting to deter future acts of domestic terrorism, arguing that Rhodes played a significant role in spreading doubt about the 2020 presidential election and led more than 20 other Americans to seek to use violence against the government to thwart the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.