Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Thursday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Prior to his sentencing, Rhodes delivered a 20-minute-long diatribe in which he called himself a “political prisoner” and said his only crime was trying to stop politicians from “destroying” America. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta delivered a searing rebuke to Rhodes before handing down the longest sentence yet to any of the more than 400 people charged in connection with the attack.
