Opinion: Right-wing militia leaders, on trial for sedition, continue to threaten democracy

AP File Photo / Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. Federal prosecutors are preparing to lay out their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers’ extremist group and four associates. They are charged in the most serious case to reach trial yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. AP File Photo / Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. Federal prosecutors are preparing to lay out their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers’ extremist group and four associates. They are charged in the most serious case to reach trial yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.

By Doyle McManus / The Los Angeles Times (TNS) October 10, 2022 4 min read

Five leaders of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia that played a leading role in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are on trial in Washington.

The defendants, including Stewart Rhodes, the Yale-educated lawyer who founded the group, were charged with “seditious conspiracy”: plotting to attack the federal government by force to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.

Prosecutors said Rhodes and others planned the assault on the Capitol, ordered their troops to bring “zombie killer tomahawks” and other weapons and stockpiled guns in hotels in case the battle escalated.

The trial, the first of several planned for ringleaders of the insurrection, has high stakes.

It’s the highest-profile prosecution so far in the Justice Department’s massive Jan. 6 dragnet.