DOJ seeks 25-year prison sentence for convicted Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes

The Justice Department is seeking a 25-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy last year in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday that Rhodes "exploited his vast public influence" as leader of the right-wing militia group to persuade others to attack the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

"(Rhodes) used his talents for manipulation to goad more than twenty other American citizens into using force, intimidation, and violence to seek to impose their preferred result on a U.S. presidential election," the filing reads. "This conduct created a grave risk to our democratic system of government and must be met with swift and severe punishment."

The sentencing request is the first for a person convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, showing how the Justice Department is approaching punishment for the rare, Civil War-era charge. Rhodes is set to be sentenced on May 25.

The filing laid out sentencing requests for all nine Oath Keepers tried for sedition, six of whom were convicted of the charge.

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Prosecutors asked that Kelly Meggs, a Florida Oath Keepers leader convicted of seditious conspiracy alongside Rhodes, receive a sentence of 21 years in prison. Meggs was accused of paying for two Virginia hotel rooms where Oath Keepers stored a cache of firearms for "quick reaction force" teams that prosecutors said planned to transport the weapons into the District of Columbia if former President Donald Trump invoked the Insurrection Act or violence broke out.

Joseph Hackett, Roberto Minuta, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo were convicted of seditious conspiracy in a second Oath Keepers trial. The Justice Department suggested 17-year prison sentences for Minuta and Vallejo, a 12-year sentence for Hackett and a 10-year sentence for Moerschel.

The other three Oath Keepers tried alongside Rhodes and Meggs — Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — were acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but face a trove of other serious felony charges. Prosecutors are suggesting an 18-year sentence for Watkins, a 15-year sentence for Harrelson and a 14-year sentence for Caldwell.

GuiltyOath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack

In the first Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors painted the defendants as ringleaders of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, resulting in multiple deaths and more than 100 injured law enforcement officers. But the militia members argued that there was no plan to invade the building that day, suggesting the government had mischaracterized them throughout the lengthy proceeding.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers trials, will ultimately decide each defendant's sentence. His sentencings could exceed or fall short of prosecutors' requests.

In the filing, prosecutors warned that the mainstreaming of political violence is an impulse that "threatens our democracy" if left unchecked.

"The justice system's reaction to January 6 bears the weighty responsibility of impacting whether January 6 becomes an outlier or a watershed moment," the filing read.