WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors want the founder of the Oath Keepers sent away for 25 years in federal prison, writing that members of the far-right organization were “prepared to fight” on Jan. 6 and that Stewart Rhodes should receive a terrorism sentencing enhancement for trying to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power and keep Donald Trump in office.
Rhodes should receive 25 years in federal prison, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed late Friday, while eight of his co-defendants should receive prison sentences of between 10 and 21 years.
Rhodes and fellow Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in November, while three of their co-defendants — Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — were found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting. Other members of the Oath Keepers, Roberto Minuta, Ed Vallejo, Joseph Hackett and David Moerschel, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in a separate trial in January.
Prosecutors are seeking 21 years for Meggs, 18 years for Watkins, 17 years for Minuta, 17 years for Vallejo, 15 years for Harrelson, 14 years for Caldwell, 12 years for Hackett and 10 years for Moerschel. Rhodes will be sentenced on May 25, while other defendants will be sentenced in a series of hearings set for May 24, May 26, June 1 and June 2.
Last week, four members of the Proud Boys were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy, bringing the total number of defendants found guilty of that rare charge in connection with the Jan. 6 attack to 14. (Three other members of the Oath Keepers — William Todd Wilson, Joshua James and Brian Ulrich — pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in 2022. One Proud Boy, Jeremy Bertino, pleaded guilty to the seditious conspiracy charge and testified at trial.)
Prosecutors wrote that the “scope and scale of Rhodes’ conduct in calling for and conspiring to perpetrate violence against the U.S. government to change the results of a presidential election and retaliate against Congress for certifying those results merits” increasing the amount of time he spends in prison because the attack was a crime of terrorism.
“Defendant Rhodes stands out among the conspirators for the frequency and vehemence with which he urged his followers to use intimidation and coercion to influence and affect the conduct of government (to stop the lawful transfer of power from President Trump to President Elect-Biden) and to retaliate against government conduct (for failing to intercede to change the election result to his desired outcome),” prosecutors wrote.
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