Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the right-wing military organization Oath Keepers, was proven guilty of racist conspiracy related to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and on Thursday, he was given an imprisonment of 18 years in jail and three years of restricted release. It is the 1st punishment given out to a defendant accused of an unusual, Civil War-era offense related to the disturbance.
Before the verdict was announced, Rhodes boldly faced the court while adopting an orange jumpsuit and his trademark eyepatch beneath wire-frame spectacles, referring to himself as a “political prisoner” having “preordained guilt since Day One.”
Rhodes compared himself to well-known Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and stated, “I would aim to be an American Solzhenitsyn and show the immorality of this system, no matter how long I stay in jail.”
Rhodes’ description of his sentence was sharply criticized by Judge Amit Mehta, who is in charge of the case.