Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn President Joe Biden's election, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
A Washington, D.C., jury found Rhodes guilty of sedition after three days of deliberations in the nearly two-month-long trial that showcased the far-right extremist group's efforts to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House at all costs. Rhodes was acquitted of two other conspiracy charges.
The verdict marks a significant milestone for the Justice Department and is likely to clear the path for prosecutors to move ahead at full steam in upcoming trials of other extremists accused of sedition.
It is also likely to embolden investigators, whose work has expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland recently named a veteran prosecutor, Jack Smith, to serve as special counsel to oversee key aspects of a probe into efforts to subvert the election as well as a separate investigation into the retention of classified documents at Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.