During the trial, former Oath Keepers Vice President Greg McWhirter, whom lawyers for Rhodes sought to call as a witness, was revealed to be a confidential informant for the FBI against the group in the lead-up to the Capitol riot. In addition, another former Oath Keeper, Abdullah Rasheed, also became an FBI informant against the group. Defense lawyers for the Oath Keepers said in September, “What the Government knew — but only recently disclosed to the Defendants — was that none of the confidential human sources provided evidence of guilt on the part of the Oath Keepers as an organization, or the individual Defendants in this case.”
On Tuesday evening, a Washington, DC jury found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
Prosecutors had accused Rhodes of “fomenting a plot to force to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump,” Reuters reported.
One co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, was also found guilty of the sedition conspiracy charge, while three others, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell, were acquitted.
The eight week trial wrapped up on Tuesday following three days of jury deliberations.
According to the US Code, seditious conspiracy is when two or more persons “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”
US Code states that sentencing for this charge is a fine, less than 20 years in prison, or both.
According to CNN, Rhodes had been acquitted of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Noting the rarity of the conviction, Julie Kelly wrote on Twitter, “No American has ever been convicted of seditious conspiracy. Today a DC jury convicted Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government without weapons and mostly based on texts and videos.”
No American has ever been convicted of seditious conspiracy. Today a DC jury convicted Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government without weapons and mostly based on texts and videos. L
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) November 29, 2022
Washington Examiner: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/oath-keepers-guilty-seditious-conspiracy-capitol-riot
Either he’s been part of the plan to identify and entrap his followers all along or he’s guilty of not fully accepting just how sneaking and malicious the people are he’s dealing with. He’s supposed to know that already. So it puzzles me why so many people would walk right into a fairly obvious trap. Did he really believe they were that passive in leaving the capitol wide open when ZOG’s “MAGA” spokesman were urging them on? The majority of those people were like overweight middle aged people waving flags of the kind that like to have backyard barbecues on… Read more »
It’s bullshit, a rigged court. Just how stupid do they think everyone is? “attempting to overthrow the U.S. government without weapons and mostly based on texts and videos.” That’s a comedy, anyone with half a functioning brain knows that it will never do anything to the gubmint.
We have such a corrupt judicial system and I do not thing this should have been the outcome of this trial!
The Dems are out of control and somebody needs to stop them. It looks like they have been convicted based on talking over their viewpoints. No weapons, this is rediculous.
We really need Donald Trump to help get rid of the deep state.
There was a BBC doc recently put up on YT all about how his family turned against him. Makes one wonder if they got paid off to do so thru the weakest link, his woke-ish son? Stewart Rhodes’ son ‘How I escaped my father’s militia.
So “text and video” is found as sufficiency to convict for sedition? They posed no credible threat, and were engaged in free speech which hated what was being done TO the rule of state election law and the US Constitution. Apparently on this one, “hate speech” couldn’t be employed, as the haters were those opposing US patriots! Agent provocateurs in league with the FBI, were also being illegally deep state used for entrapment purposes it does appear. They tried the same thing, with Michigan’s governor. I would say the US has become a banana republic, except there is ostensibly one… Read more »