Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers,
has officially been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being
found guilty of sedition for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington,
DC jury in November.
Now prosecutors wanted the judge to sentence him to 25 years, but
ultimately the judge decided on 18 years.
Now what did Stewart Rhodes do specifically?
According to CNN, Rhodes, who was accused of leading dozens of other individuals
in a coordinated plot that culminated in the January 6 siege, was also found
guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and tampering with documents.
Of those that Rhodes led, 22 people, 22,
have already been convicted of various federal crimes by a jury or guilty plea.
Eight, including Rhodes's co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, who will be sentenced
later Thursday, meaning today as well, were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Now the judge argued during the sentencing that Rhodes failed
to show even a little bit of remorse for what he engaged in.
In fact, through what he said throughout the trial, it was very clear that
Rhodes was not at all remorseful for what he had done or what he took part in.
And this next video explains that element of the story in greater detail.
>> The judge said that Rhodes did not express remorse for this,
and the judge stated that feared that if freed, he'd attempt this again.
What exactly did Rhodes say through the course of this trial
that gave the judge that concern?
>> Right, well, the judge's words specifically was that as we heard
you speak today, the moment you are released,
you will be prepared to take up arms against our government.
He's quoting back to him, and that's because Stewart Rhodes spoke for
about 20 minutes today and essentially revealed how extreme he still is.
He believes that the election of 2020 was illegal.
He believes that there is a criminal regime governing the United States.
He believes he is a political prisoner, but Judge Mehta said to him,
no, you are not.
It is not because of your political beliefs that you are here today.
It is because you believe violence was the way to achieve the outcome of the election
that you preferred, and that is not the way that American democracy works.
>> He also said, in the context of the sentencing hearing, quote,
I'd like to start by just saying that I'm a political prisoner, and like
President Trump, my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country.
Rhodes told the judge in court, and it did not bode well for him, Cenk.
>> Okay, so first of all, fun fact, that guy's got an eye patch.
He looks like a tough guy warrior, maybe in Afghanistan or Iraq or something.
No, he shot his own eye out.
>> My God, I didn't even know that, that's amazing.
>> A total idiot.
Okay- >> What a fun detail to the story.
>> Yes, so now, secondly, Donald Trump, my God, these guys are patriots,
and I might pardon them.
Then why didn't you give a dollar to his defense?
Left him totally, hung him out to dry.
Trump hung out all those guys to dry.
So his Trump supporters gave him a couple hundred million dollars for legal defense,
and they all say, my God, we love the January 6 guys.
They're political prisoners, we can't wait to free them.
Well, why don't you use your hundreds of millions of dollars to free them?
Why do they have to use public defenders, etc.,
cuz these guys aren't rich like Trump.
Half of them are broke, right?
And by the way, what happened?
And now I'm massively in favor of this guy going away.
Having said that, all the poor are getting jail sentences.
>> That's true.
>> All the rich that actually organized it,
none of them are getting jail sentences.
>> To be fair, in the video that we just watched,
it looked like they were searching his home in Texas, which looked pretty nice.
>> It's in Texas, no, he lives in remote areas.
I read long stories about him, and I call him an idiot because he is, in so
many different ways.
>> I mean, he shot his own eye out.
>> Yeah, of course, but he's actually a guy that wanted to be thoughtful.
And he just went down the wrong rabbit hole and just kept going and going and
going, until he became convinced that he had to be the vigilante militia for
Donald Trump and cause violence on anyone that defied the dear leader, and
he still believes that.
And now that gets us to the most important point.
If Donald Trump is elected,
he will definitely pardon the great majority of these guys.
>> 100%, I was just saying that.
>> And he says it, yeah, it's not an open question.
He said, I'm gonna pardon a huge majority of them, maybe all of them.
We don't know yet, okay?
So we don't know that it's gonna be Rhodes in particular, but
he's pardoning most of them.
When he does that, what signal does that send?
That sends a signal, do violence on behalf of Donald Trump, and
you will get a get out of jail free card, very literally, okay?
It's like the villain Bane in the Batman movie,
where he releases all the prisoners, and he goes, now wreak havoc.
That's exactly what Donald Trump would be doing if he gets reelected.
So, guys, you see us rip Biden day after day cuz of his weakness,
cuz he's so conservative on economic issues, etc.,
etc., but Donald Trump is like a comic book villain.
He tried to overturn our democracy once.
He used these vigilante thugs.
He's definitely gonna do it again.
And he's gonna release the guys who are convicted of insurrection against
the United States of America, cuz they did the insurrection and
the violence on his behalf.
Remember when his staff told him,
they're looking to execute your vice-president, President Trump.
He said, well, maybe he had it coming.
He 100% believes in violence, and
if he pardons any of those guys, it's a giant green light.
So what kinda violence can they do to all of us and get away with?
Probably as much as they want.