Stewart Rhodes | |
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Born | Elmer Stewart Rhodes III 1966 (age 57–58) Fresno, California, U.S. |
Education | University of Nevada, Las Vegas (BA) Yale University (JD) |
Organization | Oath Keepers |
Known for | January 6 United States Capitol attack |
Criminal status | Incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland [1] |
Conviction(s) | Seditious conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2384) Obstructing an official proceeding (18 U.S.C. § 1512) Tampering with documents and proceedings (18 U.S.C. § 1512) |
Criminal penalty | 18 years imprisonment plus 3 years of supervised release |
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III (born 1966) is an American former attorney and convicted seditionist. He founded the Oath Keepers, an American far-right anti-government militia. [2] [3] In November 2022, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering related to his participation in the January 6 United States Capitol attack culminating at the main campus of the United States Capitol complex. On May 23, 2023, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III was born in 1966 [4] in Fresno, California. [5] His father was a U.S. Marine and his mother worked on a farm. [5] Rhodes wrote about his father abandoning his mother and him when he was three years old, and that he grew up with his mother and her Mexican-American family. [6] In a 2008 blog post, Rhodes described himself as "mixed-race" and said he had "American-Indian" and Hispanic maternal ancestors. [4]
Rhodes attended high school in Las Vegas, then joined the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged after seven months, the result of a spinal injury sustained during airborne school. [7] [4] [5] [8]
After attending community college, [6] Rhodes switched to studying political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, while parking cars to make money. [9] After graduating in 1998, [5] he worked as a staffer for Republican Congressman Ron Paul. [8] Rhodes volunteered for Paul's 2008 presidential campaign and later complained that political opponents of Paul linked Paul to hate groups and racists. [4]
In 2001, aged 35, [6] Rhodes enrolled in Yale Law School. [10] He became dissatisfied with what he perceived as eroding rights in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. [5] Rhodes taught a self-defense class, [5] and his research paper about enemy combatants' classification during the presidency of George W. Bush won an award in his final year at Yale. [5] He graduated in 2004. [4]
After graduating from Yale, Rhodes clerked for Michael D. Ryan, an associate justice at the Arizona Supreme Court. [5] As a lawyer, he worked in various western U.S. states. [11]
On December 8, 2015, Rhodes was disbarred by the Montana Supreme Court for conduct violating the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct, after refusing to respond to two bar grievances filed against him in the federal district court of Arizona. [12] [13]
Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in March 2009. [14] [15] [16] The organization was launched in Lexington, Massachusetts, at the location of the first American Revolutionary War battle. [11] The launch occurred two months into the presidency of Barack Obama. [9]
Under his leadership in 2013, the Oath Keepers instructed its members to form "Citizen Preservation" teams, which included militias, to operate in communities across the US meant to defend citizens against the government intentionally letting the country descend into chaos then declaring martial law and scrapping the constitution, stating that "They are preparing to control and contain us, and to shoot us, but not preparing to feed us." [17] [18] [4]
Rhodes has collaborated with anti-government groups the Tenth Amendment Center and the Northwest Patriots. [4] The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies him as an "extremist". [19]
Rhodes is reported to have taken inspiration from the notion that Adolf Hitler could have been stopped if German soldiers and police had refused to follow orders. [20]
Rhodes has promoted the discredited theory of nullification, asserting that U.S. states may disregard federal laws. [4]
For two months after the 2020 United States presidential election, Rhodes encouraged his supporters to reject Joe Biden as the incoming president. [21] Rhodes spoke of a need to take up weapons to prevent Biden's inauguration and launched a campaign to persuade then president Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, and deploy the military and the Oath Keepers as a militia. [21]
January 6 United States Capitol attack |
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Timeline • Planning |
Background |
Participants |
Aftermath |
On November 7, 2020, after the election had been called as a win for Biden, Rhodes joined a Roger Stone text chat group asking "What's the plan?" [22]
On December 12, 2020, Rhodes spoke at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., along with speakers including Michael Flynn, Sebastian Gorka, Alex Jones, podcaster David Harris Jr., Nick Fuentes, and Mike Lindell. [23] [24] [25] [26] Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, and warned that not doing so would lead to a "much more bloody war." [26]
In the days prior to January 6, 2021, Rhodes and others traveled to Washington, D.C., where they armed themselves with firearms and tactical gear. [14] En route to D.C., Rhodes personally spent $20,000 to purchase "a small arsenal". [27] On January 6, 2021, Rhodes entered "restricted Capitol grounds" where he directed Oath Keepers members via telephone and text, telling them which positions to take up around the building. [28] Four days after the attack, Rhodes attended a meeting where he was recorded saying "My only regret is that they should have brought rifles... We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I'd hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost." [29]
On January 13, 2022, Rhodes and nine other members of the Oath Keepers were arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy. [30] On November 29, 2022, after a nine-week trial, along with Kelly Meggs, Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering in regard to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack. [31] [21] Their conviction was the first for seditious conspiracy since 1995. [32] Prosecutors sought a 25-year sentence which included a terrorism sentencing enhancement. [33] On May 25, 2023, Rhodes received an 18-year sentence and Meggs received a 12-year sentence. [34] [35] [36] Although Rhodes's sentence was the longest handed down, as of that time, to any of the charged conspirators, [37] the Department of Justice on July 12, 2023, filed notice of its intention to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for longer terms for Rhodes and his co-defendants. [38] Rhodes, Meggs and the other convicted Oath Keepers have also filed their own appeals. If unsuccessful, they will be on three years' supervised release following their prison terms. [39] Rhodes is currently serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland. [40]
Rhodes married Tasha Adams in 1994, after meeting her a few years earlier in Las Vegas. [41] [5] When they met, Adams was 18 years old and working at an Arthur Murray Dance studio, and Rhodes was a 25-year-old college student. [9] Adams worked as an exotic dancer to financially support Rhodes' education during their marriage. [9] Prior to their marriage, Rhodes accidentally shot himself in the face with a .22 handgun after dropping it, leaving him using a prosthetic eyeball. [5] [9]
Adams filed for divorce in 2018, accusing Rhodes of emotional and physical abuse. The divorce was granted days before Rhodes was sentenced for his part in the January 6 attack. [42] Adams and Rhodes have six children, including Dakota Adams, their eldest son, who uses his mother's maiden name; [43] [11] Sequoia Adams; and Sedona Adams. [44] The family lived in New Haven and several states in the western United States. [11]
Dakota Adams has said that his father was abusive to him, his mother, and his siblings; he said that Rhodes has sabotaged his children's homeschooling and that the family "lived in extreme isolation in one particular cultural bubble in increasingly paranoid and militant right-wing political spheres everywhere we moved in the country, until eventually we ended up in Montana." [43] Rhodes required them to line up with their backs to him at ATMs and gas pumps to be on the lookout for assassins, and to unload groceries from the family vehicle one-armed so as to have a hand free in case of attack. [45] The children suffered severe medical neglect and were illiterate, and Dakota only learned his multiplication tables at age 19 so that he could pass his high school equivalency test. In the spring of 2024, Dakota Adams announced that he is running for the Montana House of Representatives. [43]
Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, established authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interest of sedition.
Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of presidential power as prescribed by the United States constitution. It was incorporated in 2009 by founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper. In 2023, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and another Oath Keepers leader, Kelly Meggs, was sentenced to 12 years for the same crime. Three other members have pleaded guilty to this crime, and four other members have been convicted of it.
Seditious conspiracy is a crime in various jurisdictions of conspiring against the authority or legitimacy of the state. As a form of sedition, it has been described as a serious but lesser counterpart to treason, targeting activities that undermine the state without directly attacking it.
Amit Priyavadan Mehta is an American lawyer who has served as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia since 2014. In 2021, Mehta became a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
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Henry "Enrique" Tarrio is an American convicted seditionist and far-right activist. From 2018 to 2021, he was the chairman of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States. Along with three other Proud Boys leaders, Tarrio was convicted in May 2023 of seditious conspiracy for his role in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. In September 2023, Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Joseph Randall Biggs is an American veteran, media personality, organizer of the Proud Boys, and convicted felon for his participation in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of 45th U.S. President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup d'état, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. They sought to keep him in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the certification of the election results. According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. Within 36 hours, six people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, three died of natural causes, and a police officer died of natural causes a day after being allegedly assaulted by rioters. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Damage caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.
Dominic Pezzola is an American convicted felon and member of the Proud Boys who participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, a violent attack at the U.S. Capitol. He is best known for stealing a police riot shield and using it to break a Capitol window on January 6, 2021, making him the first rioter to breach the building. Indicted in 2021, on federal charges, he was tried in 2023 alongside Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and his key lieutenants, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl. In May 2023, following a five-month jury trial, Pezzola was convicted of obstructing a congressional proceeding, assaulting a police officer, and other crimes. He was acquitted of seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge. The jury deadlocked on other charges against Pezzola, including conspiring to obstruct the counting of the electoral votes.
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Kelly Meggs is an American convicted felon who previously led the Oath Keepers' Florida chapter. He was found guilty of seditious conspiracy following his forced entry into the United States Capitol during the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Jessica Marie Watkins is an American militia founder and former Oath Keeper leader, Army veteran and bar owner who took part in the January 6 United States Capitol attack. She was convicted of multiple felonies relating to her participation and in May 2023 was sentenced to 8.5 years in federal prison.
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James Ray Epps is a former United States Marine and Oath Keepers chapter president who was one of the protesters at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
After Donald Trump lost the 2020 United States presidential election, multiple individuals plotted to use force to stop the peaceful transition of power; this was one aspect of what eventually led to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
Harry Anthony Dunn is an American author, political candidate, and former police officer who served in the United States Capitol Police from 2008 to 2023. Dunn was one of several officers present during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and testified with his colleagues before the United States Congress for the House Select Committee investigating the attack. His efforts have earned him both the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Citizens Medal.
Dakota Adams is an American from Montana who is running as a Democrat for the Montana House of Representatives in District 1 in northern Lincoln County in the 2024 United States elections. Adams is the oldest son of Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes, who is currently serving an 18-year prison term for seditious conspiracy. Adams was homeschooled and raised with extreme Right-wing, prepper conspiracy theories. He left the American militia movement during his teenage years and wrote about his reasoning for Raw Story in 2022.