Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rose may face sentencing in January 6th attack

Washington — stewart roseThe Orth Keepers, founders of the far-right group known as the Orth Keepers, will be sentenced on Thursday on a number of felony charges related to state power. Attack on the Houses of Parliament on 6 January 2021including the felony of seditious conspiracy.

Prosecutors want a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to serve a harsh 25-year sentence for Rose and co-defendants plotting to block the peaceful transition of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. asked. Rose was found guilty by a jury last November.

Rose, the first defendant to be sentenced on January 6 on high sedition charges, said that “if enough mobs were assembled, they could intimidate Congress and its members and impose the will of their co-conspirators.” He disseminated the idea to members of the Oath Keepers and others.” “American Citizens: Suspend Recognition of the Next President of the United States,” the government claimed in a pre-judgment filing.

Prosecutors said he and fellow Orth Keepers had planned the violence prior to the Capitol break-in, communicated via encrypted messages and radio during the raid, and praised his actions afterwards.

“These defendants have silenced the millions of Americans who voted for another candidate and have used various legal and judicial actions to legally scrutinize the electoral process through January 6. They ignored the mechanics and tried to crush the democratic system of government “enshrined in our laws and constitution,” they wrote. “This act poses a grave danger to our democratic system of government and must be punished swiftly and severely.”

Rose appears before U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amit Mehta to hear the verdict Thursday morning.

His lawyers say his sentence is much lighter, given that he has been in prison since his arrest more than a year ago. They have previously claimed that there is no plan to storm the Capitol…no plan to breach the Rotunda…no plan to suspend the recognition of electors.

During the eight-week-long trial last year, the government used encrypted chats to prove that the defendants had detailed plans to travel to Washington ahead of the Jan. 6 meeting of lawmakers to count the votes. Presented evidence such as messages, recorded meetings, and social media posts. The Electoral College will vote, officially confirming Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. According to government lawyers and witnesses, the Oathkeepers’ plan included building an arsenal at a hotel near Virginia, coordinating the movement of so-called rapid response forces and preparing for violence.

Rose, a Yale Law School graduate, was the alleged mastermind of the conspiracy that prosecutors told jurors, argued in sentencing memos, and wrote an open letter to Trump to try to stay in power. He called him the “mastermind” of the plan. A vague centuries-old law known as the Insurrection Law. “1776 will repeat itself,” Rose wrote in the Oath Keepers Leadership Messages Group. “The best way is to add force to force.”

Although he has not been charged with actually entering the Capitol on January 6, he admitted to being near the Capitol that day.

The plan, according to the government, began in earnest on December 19, 2020, when then-President Trump gathered his supporters for a “wild” rally in Washington DC on January 6. instructed to Court evidence leading up to the attack indicated that Mr. Rose’s statements had become more radical, discussing revolution and civil war.

The defense argued that their clients, including Rose, were in Washington to provide security details to prominent Trump supporters who were attending a rally near the White House prior to the Capitol raid. During the riot, many defendants (only some of whom were convicted of sedition) marched to the Capitol on two separate occasions, according to trial evidence.

Rose’s co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, was also convicted of sedition conspiracy and prosecutors allege she spearheaded the Capitol break-in. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday afternoon.

Three other Oath Keepers, Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell, and Kenneth Harrelson, who were tried at the same time, were acquitted of the most serious charges but convicted of others. At subsequent trials, all four further Oathkeepers were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. They are expected to be sentenced within days.

Prosecutors argued that January 6th was not the height of the Oathkeepers conspiracy allegations. Rather, it was part of a larger plan to oppose Mr. Biden’s inauguration, and it didn’t just end with accrediting the electoral vote.

They wrote that Mr. Rhodes “stands out” among the Orth Keepers because he “frequently and violently” urged his supporters to oppose the election results and “retaliate against the government’s actions.” Prosecutors argued that Rose’s conduct deserved special attention and deserved harsher punishment under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

“Rhodes poses a unique current danger to communities and our democracy,” they wrote.

At trial, the defense argued that the government was unable to prove that an actual conspiracy to break into the Capitol existed, and that their clients spoke in an exaggerated but constitutionally protected way that they were not guilty of criminal conduct. claimed not to.

Lawyers’ defense team asked Judge Mehta to consider his career as a veteran and founder of Oath Keepers, a purported “volunteer organization” dedicated to disaster relief and community protection.

“The character of Oathkeepers reflects the character of the man who created it,” lawyers wrote in a document earlier this month seeking to give him a term sentence. “Mr Rose gave his life to the Oath Keepers.”

“None of his protected statements incited or encouraged imminent acts of violence or illegal conduct,” the attorneys argued. “Rose was at the time focused on having President Trump exercise his own power and authority during his tenure.”

Ahead of Thursday’s sentencing, the court heard from victims who said they were affected by the actions of Rose and co-defendants.

Police officer Christopher Owens said of the injuries sustained in the attack, “My wife started crying and sat on the floor crying when she saw how bruised, bruised and bloody my arms and legs were. will never forget,” he said.

Former U.S. Senator Virginia Brown, who carried electoral college votes during the attack, testified that she had to take off her shoes and run through the Capitol to escape the mob.