The estranged wife of the founder of far-right militia group Oath Keepers said she was “beyond happy” after he was found guilty of sedition for his role in the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack.
Stewart Rhodes, the head of Oath Keepers, and another member Kelly Meggs, were found guilty by a federal jury after a nearly two-month trial with testimony and arguments from federal prosecutors and defence attorneys, as well as the defendants themselves.
Tasha Adams, who filed for divorce from Rhodes in 2018 after over 20 years of marriage, said her husband absolutely never had to face a consequence in his entire life until now.
“This will be the very first time. He’s spent his life making others pay – this was past due for him,” she said.
Ms Adams, who shares six children with Rhodes, warned that her husband planned to ask for a pardon if Donald Trump comes to power again in 2024.
“I think he’s already mentally regrouped for that, and I think that’s where his mind is right now,” she told HuffPost.
“Mentally, he’s going to continue to see himself as this great man, this mystical messiah martyr that he thinks he is. He’ll see that.”
Rhodes believes it’s his “destiny to be a martyr before he is eventually found to be a great leader,” Ms Adams said.
“He abused my kids, he abused me. He’s completely amoral... I do want them to understand that, too, so that he can’t just come back.”
Rhodes, a 57-year-old eyepatch-wearing former soldier and Yale law school graduate, and four other members of the group were accused of plotting an armed rebellion to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
Jurors were asked to consider whether the Oath Keepers were not only motivated by Mr Trump’s baseless narrative that the presidential election was stolen from him, but had also planned to forcibly disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Rhodes and his allies spent weeks discussing a violent response to the presidential election on encrypted messaging apps, then organised a weapons and supply cache at a nearby hotel before joining the mob that stormed the halls of Congress with the aim to block the certification of Mr Biden’s presidency, according to federal prosecutors.
Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly said the conviction for seditious conspiracy was “a significant step” in ensuring justice is served.
“Stewart Rhodes being convicted for seditious conspiracy will be a wake-up call for a LOT of other January 6 defendants,” wrote lawyer Tristan Snell.
"If the PLANNERS of January 6 can be convicted -- and not just the foot soldiers -- then EVERYONE involved is now at risk of serious felony convictions.”
