Who is Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for US Capitol attack?

He committed seditious conspiracy crimes against democracy. He led a plot to keep then-United States president Donald Trump in power even after he lost the 2020 election. The result was the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021. Now Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. To Rhodes , his conviction for leading the far-right militia in the assault on the US Capitol made him America’s premier political prisoner — the equivalent of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. But for Judge Amit Mehta, who sentenced the Yale Law graduate to prison, Rhodes is a self-obsessed criminal who took up arms against the US government in a brazen conspiracy of sedition , threatening terror on the US Congress. ‘A peril to democracy’ Rhodes, 57, was defiant to the end of his trial, refusing any fault or error in the Oath Keepers campaign to keep Donald Trump in the White House and prevent Joe Biden from becoming president — by violent means if necessary. “I’m a political prisoner,” he told the court. “My only crime is opposing those destroying our country.” Prior to his sentence, Rhodes delivered a fascist rant in which he attacked the charges against him and vowed his devotion to Donald Trump. [caption id=“attachment_12649752” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, is seen on a screen during a House Select Committee hearing to Investigate the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. File photo/AFP[/caption] He told the judge that he was a “political prisoner” and like Trump, his only crime was “opposing those who are destroying our country,” reports CNN. Rhodes said that every person charged with crimes related to 6 January is a “political prisoner. All are being grossly overcharged.” Judge Mehta stated that Rhodes has shown no remorse and continues to be a threat. “I dare say, Mr Rhodes – and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced – you pose an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country,” Mehta said. “A seditious conspiracy, when you take those two concepts and put it together, is among the most serious crimes an American can commit,” the judge added. “It is an offence against the government to use force. It is an offense against the people of our country.” “I dare say we all now hold our collective breaths when an election is approaching. Will we have another 6 January again? That remains to be seen.” Anti-government militia The sentencing appeared to be the final blow to Rhodes, who created the Oath Keepers in 2009 after years of preparing to do battle with a government he views as increasingly repressive. With a pirate-like black patch over his left eye and a Yale law school graduate’s ability to impress followers with a mastery of constitutional law, Rhodes constructed a band of like-minded supporters largely from the ex-military and ex-police community around the country. Rhodes grew up in the southwestern United States and joined the army after finishing high school. But he was discharged early due to an injury in a parachuting exercise. His former wife Tasha Adams Rhodes, with whom he had six children, said they met as he was working as a parking valet, and she was teaching dance in Las Vegas. Rhodes also worked as a firearms instructor — and lost one eye when he dropped a gun and it fired, hitting him. In 1998, he graduated from a local university and was accepted at Yale Law, one of the country’s most elite institutions. After Yale, he set up a law practice in Montana, a breeding ground for militia and activists suspicious of any authority and enamoured by guns and military gear. It was there Rhodes developed the idea for the Oath Keepers, on the premise that the federal government was increasingly encroaching on citizens’ rights, including restricting gun ownership. Followers must be willing to fight the government, he would say, tapping into the rise of social media to gather supporters from around the United States. ‘Protecting Trump supporters’ Rhodes struck a nerve among many white men with military and police backgrounds. As the group grew, Rhodes farmed out armed, combat-suited Oath Keepers for security at Republican rallies and during social disturbances, like the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after police shot a Black man. He claimed they were basically a “peacekeeping force.” [caption id=“attachment_12649762” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] As Trump gained political influence, Oath Keepers volunteered as security at events held by his supporters. File photo/Reuters[/caption] As Trump gained political influence, Oath Keepers volunteered as security at events held by his supporters. Rhodes told the court they were protecting Trump supporters from attacks by extreme leftists known as Antifa. But increasingly the group appeared as a somewhat disciplined armed force and he became their “general,” as prosecutors labelled him. His ex-wife called him a narcissistic “sociopath” who mythologises his own future as “the next George Washington.” The 6 January attack All that came together in the 6 January uprising, when Rhodes brought several dozen members of his group to Washington with a cache of weapons, determined to block Congress’s official certification of Biden as the winner over Trump in the November 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors showed text messages and recorded conversations that depicted Rhodes building up steam for a possible violent insurrection. “The patriots are taking matters into their own hands,” he wrote other Oath Keepers. In Thursday’s sentencing, Mehta said Rhodes knew exactly what he was doing, preparing his followers with weaponry for an all-out confrontation. “What was the motive? You didn’t like the new guy,” said Mehta, referring to Biden’s victory. “What we absolutely cannot have is a group of citizens (who), because they did not like the outcome of an election…  are then prepared to take up arms to foment a revolution," he said. “You are a lawyer. You know what that means.” But Rhodes called himself a political prisoner. ‘He gave the orders’ Mehta noted that Rhodes was the mastermind behind the Oath Keepers’ attack on the Capitol, claiming the group would not have tried to interfere with Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election if not for him. “Oath Keepers wouldn’t have been there but for Stewart Rhodes, and I don’t think anyone contends otherwise,” Mehta said. “He was the one who gave the order to go, and they went.” On 6 January 2021, a mob of supporters of Trump attacked the Capitol building in Washington, DC. The attack disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the presidential election of 2020, which Trump had lost to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden Earlier on Thursday, Mehta ruled that Rhodes’ actions amounted to domestic terrorism. Of those that Rhodes led, 22 have already been convicted of various federal crimes by a jury or guilty plea. Eight, including Rhodes’ codefendants Meggs, were convicted of seditious conspiracy. With inputs from AFP Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.