While it’s not yet clear whether former President Donald Trump will face legal consequences for his role in the January 6 insurrection, those who stormed the Capitol continue to do so as two developments made evident this week.
On Wednesday, one of the rioters — Richard Barnett, who is known for being photographed with his feet on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk — was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted on eight charges by a jury, including civil disorder.
And on Thursday, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group that helped spread claims of election fraud and planned for violence on January 6, was sentenced to 18 years. Rhodes was sentenced for seditious conspiracy, one of the most severe offenses that an insurrectionist has been charged with thus far.
Together, the sentences are a reminder of how courts are holding insurrectionists accountable, and set a precedent for how attempts to subvert democracy will be punished moving forward.
Rhodes’s sentencing, in particular, could send a message to far-right extremists with anti-government leanings and signal how seriously courts are taking these groups’ plans on January 6th. As Vox’s Ellen Ioanes explained, seditious conspiracy is a significant charge that former federal prosecutor Laurence Tribe has previously described as “treason’s sibling.”
Defined as an act of two or more people conspiring to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States,” according to US criminal code, seditious conspiracy is also a rare charge. Previously, the Justice Department hadn’t pursued such a charge in more than a decade — and Rhodes is the first of those involved in the insurrection to be sentenced for it. His sentence is the highest that any insurrectionist has faced for their actions related to January 6th.
As part of the case against Rhodes, prosecutors emphasized that the Oath Keepers…
Read the full article here
