{"id":1925841,"date":"2023-05-06T21:26:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T01:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-seeks-25-year-prison-sentence-for-oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes\/"},"modified":"2023-05-06T21:30:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T01:30:22","slug":"doj-seeks-25-year-prison-sentence-for-oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-seeks-25-year-prison-sentence-for-oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ wants 25-year jail term for Oath Keepers&#8217; Stewart Rhodes."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-seeks-25-year-prison-sentence-for-oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1925841&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The DOJ Seeks 25-Year Prison Sentence for Oath Keepers Founder<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-charged-for-2018-shooting-of-mass-police-officer\/\" title=\"Man charged for 2018 shooting of Mass. police officer\">25-year prison sentence<\/a> for Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III after he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-please-pardon-jon-woods-a-victim-of-process-crimes-like-michael-flynn\/\" title=\"President Trump, Please Pardon Jon Woods, a Victim of Process Crimes Like Michael Flynn\">found guilty<\/a> at trial of seditious conspiracy and other Jan. 6-related charges. Such a sentence would by far be the longest of any Jan. 6 criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n<h3>DOJ Recommends Prison Sentences for Other Oath Keepers<\/h3>\n<p>In a 183-page sentencing memorandum (pdf) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., the DOJ also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-seeks-25-year-prison-sentence-for-oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes\/\" title=\"DOJ wants 25-year jail term for Oath Keepers' Stewart Rhodes.\">recommended prison sentences<\/a> from 10\u201321 years for seven other Oath Keepers and an associate found guilty of various Jan. 6 crimes during trials in 2022 and early 2023.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kelly Meggs, 21 years<\/li>\n<li>Jessica Watkins, 18 years<\/li>\n<li>Roberto Minuta, 17 years<\/li>\n<li>Edward Vallejo, 17 years<\/li>\n<li>Kenneth Harrelson, 15 years<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Caldwell, 14 years<\/li>\n<li>Joseph Hackett, 12 years<\/li>\n<li>David Moerschel, 10 years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThese defendants were prepared to fight. Not for their country but against it,\u201d federal prosecutors wrote in a filing with U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. \u201cIn their own words, they were \u2018willing to die\u2019 in a \u2018guerrilla war\u2019 to achieve their goal of halting the transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election,\u201d the memo reads. \u201cAs a co-conspirator recognized, their actions made these defendants \u2018traitors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Prosecutors Apply Enhancers and Upward Departures from Sentencing Guidelines<\/h3>\n<p>In crafting the recommendations, prosecutors applied enhancers and upward departures from sentencing guidelines for aggravating factors such as obstruction and the role each defendant allegedly played on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs legal challenges to the election sputtered, and President Trump gave no indication that he would invoke the Insurrection Act to halt the certification of the election,\u201d the sentencing memo said, \u201cthese defendants explicitly discussed the need to use any means necessary, up to and including the use of force, to oppose the transfer of power, and they began to focus on January 6 as a day of action for their objective. Then, on January 6, the defendants seized the opportunity to advance their conspiratorial goal by participating in the attack on the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Defense Attorneys Argue There Was No Plan or Conspiracy to Halt Certification<\/h3>\n<p>Defense attorneys said there was no plan nor a conspiracy to halt certification. They said the Oath Keepers did not \u201cattack\u201d the Capitol, although some members entered the building the afternoon of Jan. 6 and rendered assistance to police. The Oath Keepers were in Washington that day to provide event security and VIP protection for permit-approved rallies, attorneys said.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart Rhodes, who will be sentenced on May 25, said he was at a nearby hotel on Jan. 6 when he saw television coverage of violence breaking out at the Capitol. He went to the Capitol and ordered all Oath Keepers away from the building, Rhodes told the FBI in a May 2021 interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, clearly, the jury found no evidence of any plan by me to do anything regarding entering the Capitol on Jan. 6,\u201d Rhodes said.<\/p>\n<p>In Caldwell\u2019s 25-page sentencing memorandum (pdf), defense attorney David Fischer asked the court to sentence Caldwell to time served with a period of supervised release. Caldwell will be sentenced on May 24.<\/p>\n<p>Fischer rapped the DOJ\u2019s \u201cmultiple inaccurate, unsupported, and dubious claims\u201d made about his client. He listed 14 such allegations from the trial that ran from Sept. 27 through Nov. 29, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a 25-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III after he was found guilty at trial of seditious conspiracy and other Jan. 6-related charges. Such a sentence would by far be the longest of any Jan. 6 criminal prosecution. In a 183-page sentencing memorandum (pdf)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":1925842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[11238,7076,5471,9137,9138,23408,4453,9095],"class_list":["post-1925841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-25-year","tag-doj","tag-jail","tag-keepers","tag-oath","tag-rhodes","tag-stewart","tag-term"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1925841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1925841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1925841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1925841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}