“The despicable effort by Trump’s ‘Justice’ Dept—to deny Stewart Rhodes’ traitorous criminality and free him from the contempt and condemnation that he deserves—is one more reminder that the attack on our nation on Jan. 6, 2021 is a war that has not ended.”

“I dare say, Mr. Rhodes—and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced—you pose an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country,” Mehta said.

But I think on this Memorial Day, a day when we remember Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country to defend the U.S. Constitution and our democratic system of government, it’s worth pausing on some of the detail in Judge Mehta’s remarks. They served to explain his reasoning as well as rebut the arrogant Rhodes’ self-serving rant. “I am a political prisoner,” Rhodes said, adding of his time in prison, “My goal will be to be an ‘American Solzhenitsyn’ to expose the criminality of this regime.”

“You are not a political prisoner, Mr. Rhodes. That is not why you are here,” Mehta said. “It is not because of your beliefs. It is not because Joe Biden is the president right now.”

snip

The judge made clear the seriousness of the conviction of seditious conspiracy. “A seditious conspiracy—when you take those two concepts and put it together—is among the most serious crimes an American can commit. It is an offense against the government to use force. It is an offense against the people of our country,” Mehta said. “It is a series of acts in which you and others committed to use force, including potentially with weapons, against the government of the United States as it transitioned from one president to another. And what was the motive? You didn’t like the new guy.”