Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, was indicted last week for seditious conspiracy. He could get 20 years. I hope he does.
Rhodes, 56, is a Yale Law School graduate who practiced criminal law in Montana. He’s not a lawyer anymore; he was disbarred in 2015. Now it’s time for him to go to prison.
Two days after the 2020 election, before Biden was declared the winner, Rhodes told his followers, “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Prepare.”
Four days later, when news media called the election for Biden, he told them to “refuse to accept it and march en masse on the nation’s Capitol” and “expressed hope that Trump would call up the militia to help stay in power.”
When the time came, they did more than march on the Capitol decked out in military gear; they invaded it using military tactics, such as “stack” formations to breach police lines. They succeeded in getting in, and went hunting for Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Pence.
Unlike many of the thousands of protesters and hundreds of rioters who converged on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Rhodes and his group planned their attack in advance. That’s the basis of the conspiracy charges against them.
I won’t go through the details of their planning here; you can read them here. The main thing to understand is that in the weeks preceding the Capitol insurrection, the Oath Keepers discussed and planned for “armed conflict.” It wasn’t just talk. They stashed a cache of guns in a hotel room near the Capitol, to be used by their “Quick Reaction Force.”
The Oath Keepers’ motto is: “Not on our watch!”
Meaning me and 81 million other Americans voting Trump out of office, which they tried to enforce by force and violence. That was a direct attack on my civil rights and freedoms as an American citizen, especially my freedom to choose my government.
I want to see a federal jury and sentencing judge shove those words up his ass.
Related articles: For Vox’s take on the sedition charges, go here. For a discussion by a Harvard law professor and a former federal prosecutor, go here.
Photo: Steward Rhodes, above, is indistinguishable from a Third World revolutionary
I rather hope the courts toss the seditious conspiracy statute into the dust bin of unconstitutional acts where it belongs as it is an affront to the First Amendment. Failing that the government has to prove its case and hopefully as in the past two cases the government lost. His attorney should fight to keep the trial out of the District of Columbia as none of these suspects can get a fair trial there. In the end this maybe a big embarrassment to the AG and the Biden administration.
So you and the 81 million who voted for Biden can do all the things the Oath Keepers are accused of but if they do it it is criminal acts?
A good and brave Federal Judge will toss most or all of the governments charges. We are in short supply as always of those kinds of judges.
I and the 81 million who voted for Biden did none of the things the Oath Keepers are accused of. We voted, that’s all. We didn’t storm the Capitol, stockpile guns in nearby hotel rooms, or plot to overthrow the election by force and violence if our candidate lost. Federal prosecutors are very good at what they do, so I wouldn’t bet on Rhodes staying out of jail.