DOJ seeks 25 years in jail for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes

The Department of Justice is seeking a 25-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted last year of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Five members of the group stood trial in that case and were found guilty on criminal counts. Rhodes and Kelly Meggs were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy while the three other defendants in the case, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell, were acquitted on that charge.

Other members of the group have faced charges in separate cases, including an additional batch of four whom a jury convicted of seditious conspiracy in January.

The DOJ argued in a late Friday court filing that Rhodes should face the lengthy sentence, also recommending that Meggs receive 21 years, according to The Hill.

"Using their positions of prominence within, and in affiliation with, the Oath Keepers organization, these defendants played a central and damning role in opposing by force the government of the United States, breaking the solemn oath many of them swore as members of the United States Armed Forces," the DOJ contended.

"He exploited his vast public influence as the leader of the Oath Keepers and 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 agency wrote of Rhodes, in particular.

Seditious conspiracy has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, though Rhodes was also convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.