Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy related to allegedly coordinating the insurrection ahead of January 6. Multiple other members were also charged. This is the first time the Justice Department has used the seditious conspiracy charge in relation to Jan. 6, which carries a maximum sentence of no more than 20 years.
Authorities said Rhodes and other Oath Keepers conspired to “oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power” from outgoing President Donald Trump to incoming President Joe Biden. The case involving 17 other Oath Keepers’ participation in the insurrection is the department’s largest and most complex conspiracy case resulting from the January 6 attack.
Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism director at the National Security Council and a former FBI and DHS official, told ABC News, “The charges against Stewart Rhodes send a strong message.”
