WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors want the Oath Keepers founder to be sentenced to 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 an upgrade. sentencing for terrorism 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 memorandum filed Friday night, while eight of his co-defendants should receive prison terms 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 official process and aiding and abetting. Other Oath Keepers members, 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 scheduled 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 to 14 the total number of defendants found guilty of that rare charge in connection with the January 6 attack. (Three other members of the Oath Keepers: William Todd Wilson, Joshua James and brian ulrich — pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in 2022. A 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 soliciting and conspiring to perpetrate violence against the US government to change the results of a presidential election and in retaliating against Congress for certifying those results deserves » increase the amount of time he spends in prison because the attack was a terrorist offense.
“Defendant Rhodes stands out among the conspirators for the frequency and vehemence with which he urged his supporters to use intimidation and coercion to influence and affect government conduct (to stop the legal transfer of power from President Trump to President-Elect -Biden) and to retaliate against the government’s conduct (for failing to intercede to change the outcome of the election to their desired result),» prosecutors wrote.