Stewart Rhodes Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison

By Desert Star Staff

The founder of the farright anti-government militia group Oath Keepers was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a bid to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House after winning the 2020 election. The judge also imposed an enhancement for domestic terrorism, the first time that has happened in one of the hundreds of Capitol riot cases brought by the federal government. That move could signal lengthy sentences for other members of far-right groups like Oath Keepers and the now-defunct Proud Boys, who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Rhodes as the leader of the Oath Keepers movement who had been pushing his followers to take up arms against the government. The organization recruits past and present military and police officers who believe the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its members as defenders against tyranny. Prosecutors said that as networks declared Biden the election winner, Rhodes urged his supporters to storm the Capitol. They did so to disrupt the electoral college vote certification and delay a transfer of power from Donald Trump to Biden.

A Washington jury convicted Rhodes and four others of the seditious conspiracy charge in November, marking the most significant victory for the government in its sprawling investigation into Jan. 6 rioting in the nation’s capital. The sentence is the longest in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy argued that although no Oath Keepers message explicitly laid out a plan to attack the Capitol, Rhodes “doggedly drilled” Trump’s false claims of election fraud into his followers and pushed them toward armed rebellion. She said that Rhodes continued to profess those beliefs in interviews and speeches from jail.

Mehta denied his request for leniency, noting that Rhodes is not remorseful and continues to represent an ongoing threat to democracy. She also ordered him to pay $1 million in restitution to victims of the attack on Capitol employees and police officers.

The judge also rejected arguments from Rhodes and co-defendants, including

Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida Oath Keepers chapter, that the court should use a lower standard than seditious conspiracy for their actions. Instead, Mehta ruled that Rhodes was responsible for the actions of his coconspirators, including a violent assault on police and congressional staffers, because of his position in Oath Keepers and his words.

Mehta’s sentence is the latest blow to the Oath Keepers, which has grown into one of the most significant militias in America and whose members are a small but vocal minority of the country’s population of 330 million. The convictions have shattered the organization’s image as a law-abiding group of patriotic citizens and may lead some to turn away from extremist movements like it in the future, experts say.

By Desert Star Staff

As the latest debt ceiling fight looms, calls are surfacing for a wacky solution: minting a trilliondollar coin. The idea is based on the Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT, which says the government can create money out of thin air to pay its bills.

The idea is to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin and deposit it with the Federal Reserve. This would bypass Congress and avoid a default.

What is a trilliondollar coin?

As the political deadlock over the debt ceiling worsens, a novel solution has been proposed: creating a trilliondollar coin. This entails the Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, directing the US Mint to produce a platinum coin worth $1 trillion and depositing it in the Federal

Reserve to alleviate the country’s financial crisis.

Those in favor of Modern

During the current debt ceiling negotiations, a unique idea has gained popularity the Federal Reserve, and continue paying its bills while avoiding the debt ceiling. provision that allows Mint-tomint coins of any face value, and the Federal Reserve can hold coins on deposit. However, some experts are skeptical, believing the currency to be a gimmick that could lead to inflation.

The idea is that a loophole in the law permits the Treasury Department to mint platinum coins, deposit them with

The idea of minting a trillion-dollar coin has resurfaced among Democrats as a possible solution to avoid a debt ceiling crisis. This concept is based on Modern Monetary Theory, which suggests that the government can create more money to pay its bills without congressional approval for new debt issuance. While this approach could boost the economy by increasing bank reserves and credit availability, it may also compromise the independence of the Federal Reserve and lead to a chaotic default. Therefore, experts were consulted to determine the feasibility of this unconventional proposal. The proposed coin would have an exaggerated face value and be stored in a Federal Reserve vault to prevent a default on government bonds. The coin solution was introduced in 1992 and gained attention during the debt ceiling crisis. It allows the president to bypass Congress, but its constitutionality is uncertain. Aides are considering using a clause in the 14th Amendment to address the current debt limit issue. Proponents suggest minting a trillion-dollar coin and depositing it at the Federal Reserve to inject cash into the Treasury and avoid breaching the debt ceiling.

••••••• •••••••