Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday following a landmark verdict that convicted him of leading a weeks-long plot to keep former President Trump in power, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Rhodes was sentenced at a federal courthouse in Washington less than a mile from the Capitol. He is the first January 6 defendant to be convicted of seditious conspiracy to receive his sentence, which will set the standard for a slew of sentencing to come for members of far-right extremist groups.

Prosecutors, seeking a 25-year prison sentence, said Rhodes remained a threat to American democracy more than two years after he led a plot to forcibly block Trump’s transfer of power to President Biden after Trump swept the 2020 election. lost.

At a court hearing on Wednesday, police officers and congressional staffers spoke of the physical and emotional trauma they continue to suffer after engaging in hand-to-hand combat with rioters for hours or fleeing as the crowd roamed the halls in search of legislators and then… Vice President Mike Pence.

Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was found guilty in November of seditious conspiracy alongside Florida Chapter leader Kelly Meggs. Four other Oath Keepers were convicted of the rarely used charge at a second trial in January. Three of Rhodes’ co-defendants were acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but convicted of other crimes.

It was one of the most consistent cases brought by the Justice Department as it sought to prove that the riot was not a spontaneous protest for right-wing extremists like the Oath Keepers, but the culmination of weeks of plotting to overturn Biden’s election victory.

From Yale to Jail: The Path of Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes

Rhodes’s conviction comes just weeks after former Proud Boys national president Enrique Tarrio was convicted along with other leaders of his far-right group of inciting conspiracy in what prosecutors say was a separate plot to prevent the transfer of presidential power. to block. The Proud Boys members will receive their punishment in August and September.

Rhodes’ lawyers said he should be sentenced to the 16 months he has already served behind bars since his arrest in January 2022. In seeking leniency, Rhodes’ lawyers cited his military service and told the judge that his writings and statements were all protected political expressions.

Rhodes’ lawyers plan to appeal his conviction.

Rhodes and Meggs were the first people in nearly three decades to be found guilty of seditious conspiracy at trial. Meggs is expected to be sentenced later Thursday after Rhodes, and two other Oath Keepers will be sentenced Friday. Four other defendants convicted of seditious conspiracy will be sentenced next week.

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The convictions were a major blow to the Oath Keepers, which Rhodes founded in 2009 and has grown into one of the largest far-right anti-government militias. By recruiting former and current members of the military and police officers, the group promotes the belief that the federal government is bent on depriving citizens of their civil liberties and portrays its followers as defenders of tyranny.

Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers said there were never any plans to attack the Capitol or stop Congress from ratifying Biden’s victory.

The defense tried to take advantage of the fact that none of the Oath Keeper’s messages contained an explicit plan to storm the Capitol. But prosecutors said the Oath Keepers saw an opportunity to achieve their goal of stopping the transfer of power and sprang into action when mobs began storming the building.

Reports, recordings and other evidence presented at the trial showed that after the 2020 election, Rhodes and his followers became increasingly irate at the prospect of a Biden presidency, which they perceived as a threat to the country and their way of life. considered. In an encrypted chat two days after the election, Rhodes told his followers to prepare their minds, bodies and spirits for civil war.

On a conference call days later, Rhodes urged his followers to let Trump know they were willing to die for the country. An Oath Keeper listening was so shocked that he began recording the conversation and contacted the FBI, telling the jurors it sounded like we were going to war against the United States government.

Another man testified that after the riot, Rhodes tried to persuade him to relay a message to Trump urging the president not to give up his fight to retain power. The intermediary who told jurors he had an indirect way to reach the president taped his meeting with Rhodes and went to the FBI instead of relaying the message to Trump. Rhodes told the man at that meeting that the Oath Keepers should have brought guns on January 6.

The longest sentence handed down before Thursday in the more than 1,000 cases of rioting at the Capitol, 14 years in prison, was handed down this month for a man with a long criminal record who assaulted police officers with pepper spray and a chair while storming the Capitol.

Just over 500 of the defendants have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms and the rest sentences such as probation or house arrest.