In the years that followed the Jan. 6 attack, several hundred rioters were charged with a variety of crimes, but the case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was qualitatively different. In the largest sedition trial in the U.S. since the aftermath of World War II, Rhodes was charged with seditious conspiracy.
Charges like these are hard to prove and incredibly uncommon — Americans rarely try to overthrow their own government. In Rhodes’ case, however, prosecutors succeeded: He was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.
“I dare say, Mr. Rhodes — and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced — you, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and to the republic and to the very fabric of this democracy,” said Judge Amit Mehta at the proceedings.
Twenty months later, on Jan. 21, 2025, Rhodes was a free man, thanks to a pardon from Donald Trump, the Republican whom Rhodes illegally plotted to help.
Now, as the year nears its end, Rhodes is making new plans, and as Media Matters noted, he told a far-right media outlet over the weekend that he’s “relaunching” and “rebuilding” his organization, adding that his goal “is to rebuild the organization stronger than ever because it’s an essential mission.”
But that’s not all he said. From the transcript: Right now, under federal statutes, President Trump can call us up as the militia if he sees it necessary, especially for three purposes: to repel invasions, to suppress insurrections, and to execute the laws of the union. And right now, we see all three of those in play. We have — we’re facing an ongoing invasion of this country, it has not stopped. We’re facing an insurrection by the left. And we’re also facing a direct blocking and resistance against enforcing federal law — federal immigration laws, attacking ICE agents, you know, trying to ram them and run them off the road, throwing bricks to their windows. All of that is going on. And so under those three purposes, he can call up the militia. As part of those comments, Rhodes added that he’d like to see Trump “order us all to come together in our counties under his command.” To date, the president has not publicly commented on such an idea. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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