Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right group Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for inciting people to riot during the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021. Rhodes’ sentence is the first of its kind. He is convicted of having been behind a several-week-long plot that ended with the Oath Keepers going to the front during the storming. The aim was to prevent the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States from being approved. The sentence is the longest so far given after the attack. It is nevertheless milder than the Ministry of Justice wanted. They wanted him to be sentenced to 25 years in prison. On January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington to protest the election results. Around 2,000 broke into the Congress. Now the legal process is underway against those who entered the important American building. Rhodes is now convicted of seditious conspiracy, i.e. for inciting the rebellions. According to CNN, it is the first time in more than ten years that someone has been convicted of this. CNN writes that the district judge in the case, Amit Meht, said this about the sentence: – This is one of the most serious offenses you can commit. It is a crime against the government to use force. It is a crime against our country. Rhodes himself is said to have claimed that he is a “political prisoner”.
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