rhodes and leader of the florida chapter of the far-right group kelly meggs found guilty with the january 6, 2020 attack on the capitol. the seditious charge carries maximum of 20 years in prison. rhodes attorney said they plan to appeal the conviction. the notice serious case to grow out of the justice department s sprawling investigation into the u.s. capitol insurrection. the trial lasted eight weeks with the jury deliberating for three days. three other members of the group were found not guilty on seditious conspiracy. that charge, and they include jessica watkins, harrison and caldwell. all five found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting for their actions on january 6th. a sentencing date has not been set yet. federal prosecutors allege the
paramilitary group the oath keepers. stewart rhodes are and others are charged with seditious conspiracy against the united states. they entered the capitol and some fought with police. the indictment charges that they had stashes of guns and ammunition just outside of washington, d.c. that day ready to be deployed and that rhodes spent weeks coordinating a plan to keep trump in office. obviously, the main part of this trial is whether rhodes and his co-conspirators will be convicted which is a serious charge. and there are questions about what more we learned about january 6 and what happened on that day. three oath keepers have already pleaded guilty to this seditious charge. and now cooperating with prosecutors. one of those cooperators said he overheard stewart rhodes trying
together in that way. it s good to see you. joining me for more on this is legal analyst jennifer rogers, former federal prosecutor. let s talk about the seditious charge. it s opposed to the conspiracy charges that have already been brought. it requires that they try to overthrow the government or interfere with the workings of government by force. so by force is the key phrase here. you re not just talking about perhaps the plot to put in the fake electors or to these other schemes that happened in the leadup to january 6th, but by force. the proud boys, the oath keepers, these are the people who came armed and had plans at least in the oath keepers to have the cue, the quick reaction forces outside of d.c. to bring in bigger arms if need be. they actually assaulted police officers. they broke down the barriers. that s where the by force comes in. that s important. you have 20-year maximum sentence with this count.
the unsealed indictment of the oath keepers founder stewart rhodes with seditious conspiracy. that s a big deal. yes, bret. we talked about the oath keepers in the past. it was clear when we watched that unfold there was a hard core group that came prepared. they had dangerous items and dangerous intentions. and this is that indictment that has finally come down. but out of over 700 people indicted, thousands investigated, there really is only 11 thus far that have been tagged with this sort of seditious charge. and, you know, the indictment is quite strong. what s interesting is whether the republicans are going to make a big deal out of the fact that the indictment seems sort of clear trump in one respect in that you have the head of the proud boys, at least in this group, expressing frustration that president trump is not willing to do more than talk.