#Vaccinations in accordance with us law full#
#Vaccinations in accordance with us law trial#

Meggs, everything you worked for, everything you built … vanished in a couple of months.” “It is astonishing to me how average Americans somehow transformed into criminals in the weeks before and on January 6,” the judge said. “You don’t hope that the president invokes the Insurrection Act so you can start a war in the streets … you don’t rush into the US Capitol with the hope to stop the electoral vote count.” If we do, he added, “we will slowly but surely descend into chaos.” “You don’t take to the streets with rifles,” Mehta said. Mehta addressed Meggs and the larger issue of how the Capitol attack happened. Prosecutors had asked for Meggs to be sentenced to 21 years in prison, saying that “with the possible exception of Stewart Rhodes, Meggs was the intellectual and moral center of this conspiracy.” “This tough sentence is going to make the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, all these organizations, it’s going to make them more difficult for them to recruit and, as important, for them to raise money,” Kayyem said. “I believe that justice shouldn’t be celebrated – it should be expected.”ĬNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem said the sentencing should have a “chilling effect on these groups,” especially as the presidential election season begins. “I have a hard time finding joy or celebration in a sentence of 18 years,” Dunn said. “His lawyers argued that Donald Trump is the root of the problem, and I totally agree.

#Vaccinations in accordance with us law full#

“It is a step towards full accountability,” Dunn said. US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who testified earlier this week about his experience on January 6, told CNN that Donald Trump should be “next.” The seditious conspiracy charge has rarely been brought in the century and a half that the statute and its forerunners have been on the books.

#Vaccinations in accordance with us law trial#

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, DC, jury in November in a historic criminal trial that was a test of the Justice Department’s ability to hold January 6 rioters accountable and validated prosecutors’ arguments that the breach of the Capitol was a grave threat to American democracy. He was the one who gave the order to go, and they went.” Oath Keepers wouldn’t have been there but for Stewart Rhodes, I don’t think anyone contends otherwise. He was the reason they were in fact in Washington DC. “He was the one organizing the teams that day. “He was the one giving the orders,” Mehta said. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesĬapitol riot victims recount their experiences ahead of Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy sentencing Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on Januin Washington, DC. WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. It is an offense against the people of our country.”Įarlier on Thursday, Mehta ruled that Rhodes’ actions amounted to domestic terrorism. “It is an offense against the government to use force. “A seditious conspiracy, when you take those two concepts and put it together, is among the most serious crimes an American can commit,” the judge said. Mehta said Rhodes, 58, has expressed no remorse and continues to be a threat. Will we have another January 6 again? That remains to be seen.” The judge added: “I dare say we all now hold our collective breaths when an election is approaching. Rhodes – and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced – you pose an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country,” Mehta said. “What we absolutely cannot have is a group of citizens who – because they did not like the outcome of an election, who did not believe the law was followed as it should be – foment revolution,” District Judge Amit Mehta said before handing down the sentence. The sentences are the first handed down in over a decade for seditious conspiracy.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday for leading a far-reaching plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.Ī second Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida contingent of the group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.