The judge overseeing the case of a criminally convicted far-right militia leader warned that the prospect of a potential pardon “is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-right anti-government military group the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of seditious conspiracy for orchestrating an attack culminating in a violent attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s election loss.
Donald Trump has vowed to pardon “most” rioters who have been charged in connection with the Capitol assault on January 6, 2021.
District Judge Ahmit Meta — speaking during a sentencing hearing for another Oath Keepers member on Wednesday — presided over a two-month trial in Washington, D.C. involving several Oath Keepers members accused of treason-related charges.
Rhodes and Oath Keepers member Kelly Meggs were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in May 2023 after jurors deliberated for three full days. Three other Oath Keepers associates were charged in the case but were found not guilty on the top charge.
Jurors were asked to consider whether the Oath Keepers were not only motivated by Trump’s baseless narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from him but also had planned to forcibly disrupt the peaceful transfer of power during a joint session of Congress.
Rhodes and his allies spent weeks discussing a violent response to the 2020 election on encrypted messaging apps, then organized a weapons and supply cache at a nearby hotel before joining the mob that broke through the Capitol’s doors and windows to storm the halls of Congress and block the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency, according to evidence shown at trial.
Rhodes entered restricted Capitol grounds that day but did not enter the building. Prosecutors did not allege that the group had a plan to break into the Capitol but had conspired to commit an act of treason against the federal government.
Seditious conspiracy “is among the most serious crimes an individual American can commit” and an “offense against the people of the country,” Mehta said last year.
“What we cannot have, we absolutely cannot have, is a group of citizens who because they didn’t like the outcome … were then prepared to take up arms in order to foment a revolution. That’s what you did,” he told Rhodes. “You are not a political prisoner, Mr Rhodes.”
For decades, Rhodes wanted American democracy to “devolve into violence,” Mehta said during his sentencing hearing.
“You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and its democracy and the very fabric of this country,” he added. “You are smart, you are compelling, and you are charismatic. Frankly, that is what makes you dangerous.”
Trump repeatedly promised mass pardons for January 6 defendants — whom he called “hostages” and “patriots” — throughout his 2024 campaign.
He said pardons will start “in the first hour” of his presidency.
“Maybe the first nine minutes,” he told TIME.
“I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” he said. “And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control.”
Mehta is not the only judge who has been bracing for Trump’s impending pardons. Trump-appointed District Judge Carl Nichols said during a hearing last month that blanket pardons would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing.”
More than 1,500 people have been federally charged in connection with the attack. At least 10 people were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, including members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang. Nearly 200 people have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against an officer.
Nearly 1,000 defendants have pleaded guilty to January 6-related charges, including more than 300 people charged with felonies. More than 600 people have been sentenced to incarceration.
