The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia was handed an 18-year prison sentence Thursday for sedition in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the toughest penalty given yet over the January 6 assault. ManilaBulletin
Out of the more than 1,000 people charged over the attack, Stewart Rhodes was singled out for directing his heavily armed group to descend on Washington and use violence if necessary to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
"You are smart, charismatic and compelling and that is frankly what makes you dangerous," Mehta said -- rejecting 57-year-old Rhodes' claim that he was a "political prisoner." "My only crime is opposing those destroying our country," he declared, comparing himself to the famed Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.Mehta focused on the Oath Keepers' stockpiling of weapons just outside the city and wearing combat-style gear in an organized push into the Capitol that day, sending lawmakers and vice president Mike Pence fleeing to safety.
In an echo of Rhodes' punishment, hours later Mehta gave Kelly Meggs, 54, the chief of the Florida branch of the Oath Keepers, 12 years in prison, also for sedition -- plotting to overthrow the government or unlawfully opposing its authority. During the Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors said the group "concocted a plan for an armed rebellion... plotting to oppose by force the government of the United States."
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