Oath Keepers leader warns Trump against trial: 'You're going to be found guilty'
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes warned former President Trump that he will be found guilty if he goes to trial in federal court, calling on his own experience facing a jury last year.
Rhodes alleged in a jailhouse interview with the Washington Times that the federal government is working to turn Trump’s close allies against him and try to scare possible witnesses who could defend the former president.
The interview took place in the Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections Central Detention Facility, where Rhodes is serving his 18-year sentence for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
He was found guilty of seditious conspiracy last year for directing other members of his far-right group while they stormed the Capitol.
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Rhodes said federal prosecutors will “do the same thing” to Trump that they did to him.
“You’re going to get railroaded. You’re going to be found guilty if you try to go to trial,” Rhodes said. “So everyone’s been demoralized and more likely to take a plea deal and agree to ‘test-a-lie’ against President Trump.”
Rhodes was defiant at his sentencing and called himself a political prisoner. The federal judge for the case, Amit Mehta, told him in response that he is not a political prisoner but an “ongoing threat and peril” to the country.
He received the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant.
Rhodes told the Times that he was convicted from his words, and Trump will be too.
Trump has not been charged with any crime in relation to the insurrection or broader attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but special counsel Jack Smith has recently questioned several high-profile individuals involved in the day’s events, including Rudy Guilani, Trump's former attorney.
The former president has been charged with 37 counts over his possession of classified and sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla. The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act.