Oath Keepers Boss and 9 Other Militia Members Plead Not Guilty to Jan. 6 Sedition Charges

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and nine other members of the anti-government militia pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to CNN. Rhodes and his co-defendants face new charges of seditious conspiracy, entered by prosecutors earlier this month, in addition to several other outstanding charges related to the insurrection. An eleventh Oath Keeper charged with sedition, Edward Vallejo, was not present at the hearing and did not plead. A grand jury indictment accuses Rhodes of rallying his fellow Oath Keepers to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, with members stockpiling weapons and organizing to keep former President Donald Trump in office. “We aren’t going through this without civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body and spirit,” Rhodes allegedly texted his followers, according to the indictment. An attorney for Rhodes told The Hill last week that the case against the Oath Keepers was “fiction,” adding: “We have the documents. We have the videos. The prosecutors know that we know that they know that their narrative is a John Grisham novel, totally false.”