Oath Keep founder Stewart Rhodes, 57, was found guilty in Washington, D.C. federal court of “seditious conspiracy” for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, trying to prevent 80-year-old President Joe Biden from certification by the Electoral College. Rhodes’ ex-wife, Tasha Adams, expressed relief for herself, for her family and for the country now that her ex is going to be behind bars, possibly for 20 years. Adams said her husband tortured her and her six children with his survivalist paranoia, putting the family through the ringer until she go the courage to divorce him. Prosecutors mention nothing about the extent of Rhodes’ mental illness, though Adams called her ex-husband a “sociopath,” a person without a conscience. Rhodes’ partner in crime, Kelly Meggs, 52, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy. Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, over 22 years before the Capitol rampage.
Rhodes, a former U.S. Marine paratrooper and 2004 Yale School graduate, once worked a legal counsel for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tx.), went over the deep end with his survivalist paranoia, according to his ex-wife Tasha Adams. Now facing possibly 20 years in prison, Rhodes believes he was doing to patriotic duty to stop the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results. Rhodes co-defendants, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessicia Watkins and Thomas Caldwell, were convicted of obstructing an official Congressional proceeding, carrying lighter prison sentences than Rhodes and Meggs. One thing that came out in the eight-week trial was that Rhodes spent months with his co-conspirators plotting the Jan. 6 riots, not, what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her nine impeachments managers accused former President Donald Trump of “incitement of insurrection.”
Trump was acquitted in the U.S. Senate Feb. 13, 2021 after House leader impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin couldn’t prove his case to the U.S. Senate. Raskin and other impeachment managers insisted that the Jan. 6 capitol riots were a spontaneous reaction to Trump’s early-morning speech at the Ellipse. FBI officials, before Trump’s impeachment trial, confirmed that the Capitol riots were planned for months, as far back as the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election. Whatever Trump claimed about a rigged election or massive voter fraud, no doubt influenced the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys, believing the former president’s delusion about the election. Trump may never convince himself that there were plenty of reasons he lost the 2020 election, including the Covid-19 crisis and May 25, 2020 George Floyd murder that resulted in four-months of rioting.
Rhodes’ attorney James Lee Bright said he thinks Rhodes’s conviction will inform prosecutors how to proceed with the Proud Boys on “seditious conspiracy.” “The return in this, even though we’re not pleased with it, probably speaks to the fact that the DOJ is going to go full steam ahead in lie fashion on all the others,” Bright told reporters after the verdicts. Rhodes and Meggs got the hammer from the jury for planning and orchestrating the attacks, something the Jan. 6 House Select Committee insisted Trump did. If you ask Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) or Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Trump, not Rhodes and Meggs, planned the Jan. 6 “insurrection. Rhodes’and Meggs verdicts today throw cold water on Cheney and Schiff’s accusation that Trump planned the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Cheny and Schiff can’t have it both ways, either Rhodes and Meggs conspired and plotted to riot Jan. 6 or they didn’t
Testimony during the two-month trial implicated Rhodes and Meggs of planning the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Rhodes insisted he didn’t go into the Capitol but email evidence between Rhodes and Meggs proved to the jury that they meant business about creating mayhem on Jan. 6, 2021 at the Capitol. Federal prosecutors said Oath Keepers kept a safe house at a Virginia hotel where they stored weapons, could be easily transported to Washington, D.C. Rhodes’ and Meggs defense involved minimizing what they said in their emails about attacking the Capitol, then passing the buck to other Oath Keepers. Jurors saw to many of Rhodes incendiary text messages, videos, photos and audio recordings, proving involvement in the plot to attack the Capitol. Some of Rhodes’ co-conspirators, like Jessica Watkins, told the jury that they never planned to enter the Capitol but got swept up in the mayhem.
Rhodes, a 2004 Yale Law graduate, saw his life disintegrated into survivalist paranoia, eventually ending his marriage to Tasha Adams. Adams admitted to the press that she and her family feels safer with Rhodes behind bars, knowing the torture she and her family lived with before she managed to escape the marriage. Prosecutors said nothing about Rhodes one working as legal counsel for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) before going over the deep end. Federal prosecutors don’t want to raise Rhodes’ mental illness as an exculpatory factor in his seditious behavior. But clearly he took on the Trump “Big Lie,” about a rigged election as his perverted patriotic duty. Now he faces years behind bars without anyone recognizing that the once Marine paratrooper and Yale Law graduate had high hopes to do something good with his life. Rhodes attorney James Lee Bright plans to appeal the conviction.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
