Monitoring Desk: Stewart Rhodes, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release Thursday after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. It’s the first sentence passed down to a person found guilty of the rare, Civil War-era charge linked to the riot, reports US Today.
According to the US Today, the US Justice Department sought a 25-year prison sentence for Rhodes, suggesting in court filings earlier this month he should face “swift and severe punishment” for his conduct, which “created a grave risk to our democratic system of government.”
In remarks Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy said Rhodes “doggedly drilled” President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud into his followers’ minds and advocated for the former president to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give him the authority to call on the military and National Guard forces to suppress an insurrection.
“It is necessary for this court, through its sentence, to say that no American citizen can impose by force their version of the law,” she said.
During the trial, prosecutors described Rhodes as the “orchestrator of this conspiracy and the architect of the plan.” They emphasized evidence that Rhodes coordinated Oath Keepers in several states to converge on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That day, he was a “general overlooking a battlefield while his troops stormed inside,” prosecutors argued.
