Oath Keepers chief convicted of seditious conspiracy warns Trump: ‘You’re going to be discovered responsible’

From the jail the place he’s staring down an 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy within the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Oath Keepers chief Stewart Rhodes mentioned that his trial laid out a blueprint for a way particular counsel Jack Smith will convict former President Donald Trump.

Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper who based the Oath Keepers militia group in 2009, mentioned the federal authorities is already working to show Mr. Trump’s internal circle in opposition to him and scare off potential witnesses for the previous president’s protection.

“They’re going to do the same thing to President Trump that they did to me,” Rhodes informed The Washington Times from the Central Detention Facility in Washington, the place he’s saved in isolation.

He despatched a grave warning to Mr. Trump: “You’re going to get railroaded. You’re going to be found guilty if you try to go to trial. So everyone’s been demoralized and more likely to take a plea deal, and agree to ‘test-a-lie’ against President Trump.”

Rhodes burdened that prosecutors used his phrases — not his actions — to convict him of seditious conspiracy, which is one step under treason.

“I didn’t enter the Capitol, but I was still found guilty by a D.C. jury of obstructing an official proceeding even though I didn’t even go inside,” he mentioned. “And I was found guilty of seditious conspiracy, although they had zero evidence of an actual plan. They just used my speech. It will be the same thing with President Trump.”

He mentioned federal prosecutors pressured members of the Oath Keepers to testify in opposition to him and 4 others within the militia who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to jail phrases of 36 to 54 months.

“They threatened [witnesses] with life in prison,” mentioned Rhodes. “That’s what’s going to happen to President Trump.”

Rhodes additionally predicted Mr. Trump will face a left-leaning D.C. decide and jury identical to the opposite Jan. 6 defendants who’ve been convicted.

Mr. Trump’s authorized workforce and marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Mr. Trump is already dealing with a 37-count federal indictment for retaining and refusing handy over labeled paperwork from his workplace and residence at his non-public Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Beach, Florida. That case is being heard in federal courtroom in Florida. 

Special counsel Jack Smith can be investigating Mr. Trump’s try to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcomes and his position within the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol. Mr. Smith is believed to be quietly working with a grand jury in Washington.

Rhodes mentioned prosecutors’ J6 playbook opened with civil litigation to create the narrative of a coup plot. It began with a lawsuit introduced by Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who later led the House Jan. 6 committee, and 10 different House Democrats accusing Mr. Trump, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Oath Keepers and one other militia group, the Proud Boys, of illegally conspiring to incite the riot.

They sued below the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a post-Civil War legislation that prohibits conspiracy to cease members of Congress from discharging the duties of their workplace.

The 32-page criticism filed in federal courtroom in Washington reads: “As part of this unified plan to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes, defendants Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, through their leadership, acted in concert to spearhead the assault on the Capitol while the angry mob that defendants Trump and Giuliani incited descended on the Capitol.”

“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College,” the lawsuit mentioned.

The courtroom battle is ongoing.

“The narrative has been set,” Rhodes mentioned in regards to the circumstances that every one landed in entrance of Judge Amit P. Mehta —  the identical decide who heard Jan. 6 prison circumstances. 

“The civil cases are the obvious narrative setting and the precursor to the criminal cases. The criminal cases are only meant to make it all true,” he mentioned.

The Justice Department in November received seditious conspiracy convictions in opposition to Rhodes and Oath Keepers Florida Chapter chief Kelly Meggs following a two-month federal trial in Washington. Judge Mehta presided over the case.

The jury discovered that each males deliberate for weeks to make use of pressure to maintain President Donald Trump within the White House after he misplaced the 2020 election.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch. His is the longest sentence handed down for the assault on the Capitol. He is searching for new counsel to attraction his conviction.  

Federal prosecutors have charged 11 folks with seditious conspiracy associated to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. They secured convictions or responsible pleas in eight circumstances and convicted three others of lesser however critical felony fees.

The Seditious Conspiracy Act was adopted following the Civil War for use in opposition to Confederates who continued to insurgent in opposition to the U.S. authorities. These circumstances had been introduced sometimes and had been typically exhausting to show, particularly when an alleged plot failed.

The authorities should show, to win a seditious conspiracy case, that two or extra folks conspired to “overthrow, put down or to destroy by force” the U.S. authorities or convey conflict in opposition to it, or that they plotted to make use of pressure to oppose the authority of the federal government or to dam the execution of a legislation.