WASHINGTON — The founder of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia and several of its members pleaded not guilty to “seditious conspiracy” for their roles in the January 2021 insurrection, signaling a drawn out fight over the most serious charges so far stemming from the assault on the Capitol.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes of Texas, who graduated from Yale Law School in 2004 and founded the Oath Keepers a few years later, entered the plea Tuesday during a virtual hearing before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington. Half a dozen other Oath Keepers members also entered not-guilty pleas.
Prosecutors said at the hearing that the government is continuing to make extensive amounts of evidence available to the defense as they prepare for at least two trials of Oath Keepers members as soon as April, including some who weren’t charged with sedition. The militia members are among more than 700 people charged since the deadly assault on the Capitol by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
