Oath Keepers Founder Warns Trump About Trial

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III is warning former President Donald Trump that there could be serious legal troubles ahead of him.

“They’re going to do the same thing to President Trump that they did to me,” Mr. Rhodes told The Washington Times in an interview published on July 4, while speaking from the D.C. Department of Corrections Central Detention Facility, where he is being held in isolation.

Mr. Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers militia group in 2009, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May, after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other crimes related to the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to the outlet, Mr. Rhodes said the federal government is working to have people in Trump’s inner circle turn against the former president, as well as scaring off potential witnesses that may come to his defense.

“You’re going to get railroaded. You’re going to be found guilty if you try to go to trial. So everyone’s been demoralized and more likely to take a plea deal and agree to ‘test-a-lie’ against President Trump,” Mr. Rhodes said.

So far, Mr. Trump has now been indicted twice. In April, the former president was charged with 34 accounts of falsifying business records related to alleged hush payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, following a decision by a grand jury empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and stated that Mr. Bragg has “no case” against him.

The former president also faces a total of 37 felony counts over his handling of documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, including violating the federal Espionage Act and other federal statutes for allegedly making false statements, concealing documents, and conspiring to obstruct justice. The indictment was brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the document case and has said he declassified the materials when he left office.

“I didn’t enter the Capitol, but I was still found guilty by a D.C. jury of obstructing an official proceeding even though I didn’t even go inside,” Mr. Rhodes said. “And I was found guilty of seditious conspiracy, although they had zero evidence of an actual plan. They just used my speech. It will be the same thing with President Trump.”

Mr. Rhodes also told the outlet that federal prosecutors pressured members of his militia group to testify against him.

“They threatened [witnesses] with life in prison,” Mr. Rhodes said. “That’s what’s going to happen to President Trump.”

In March, Mr. Rhodes told The Epoch Times that he was being prosecuted for “who I am” and warned conservatives that Jan. 6 was “only the beginning of a political persecution campaign aimed at all of you.”

Mr. Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 White House race, took to his Truth Social account to criticize Mr. Smith and the Biden administration.

“As my Poll numbers go higher & higher, the Communists, Marxists, & Fascists get more & more CRAZY with their ridiculous Indictments & Election Interference plans & plots, all controlled by an out of control, & very corrupt, DOJ/FBI,” Mr. Trump wrote.

“Republicans must get tough or the Dems will steal another Election. MAGA!” Mr. Trump added, referring to his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

According to the latest Echelon Insights survey, which asked 413 likely GOP Primary voters from June 26 to June 29, Trump held a commanding lead with 49 percent of support, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 16 percent.

Biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy finished third with 10 percent of support, followed by former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with five percent of support each.

Solitary Confinement

Mr. Rhodes said he and Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs are being held in solitary confinement in the District of Columbia jail as a punishment for being outspoken in the media about their seditious-conspiracy convictions in relation to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Rhodes said he and Mr. Meggs were put in “involuntary protective custody” on the orders of Deputy Warden Kathleen Landerkin, who made headlines in 2021 for refusing GOP lawmakers entry into the jail for a welfare check of Jan. 6 pretrial detainees.

Mr. Rhodes said he is being treated like he’s Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from popular novels and Hollywood films.

“We have to be cuffed to walk out into the shower,” Mr. Rhodes earlier told The Epoch Times. “And to go rec, like to go to outdoor rec, I have to be shackled in a chain around my waist and ankle chains, taken outside, and put in an outdoor cage.

“It’s the same thing I went through in Oklahoma,” Mr. Rhodes said, referring to his pretrial detention before being moved to the D.C. area.

“Being treated like you’re a violent—like you’re Hannibal Lecter, basically,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. This is where they put people who have made attempts to escape or assaulted guards.”

Meggs was sentenced on May 26 to 12 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings. He was acquitted of destruction of government property.

https://truthpress.com/news/oath-keepers-founder-warns-trump-about-trial/ 

Freedom Behind the Fence: Independence Day in Maximum Security Prison – An Update from J6er Pete Schwartz

My name is Pete Schwartz. I am a Jan.6th Political Prisoner. The Mainstream Media and the Liberal talking heads have repeatedly bragged about my guilty verdict and the length of my sentence. They parrot lines like, “Even though Mr. Schwartz’s mace never actually hit anybody, it heightened the danger that day.” There is no mention of how severely my wife and I were attacked prior to this, or of the fact that, once people started breaking windows and entering the Capitol, we went home.

And now, 2 and 1/2 years into a 14-year, 2 month sentence, July 4th, Independence Day, is bittersweet–a holiday I once loved.

I know my fellow Americans, including ones who used to be supportive of me before learning the length of my sentence, are joyously celebrating the holiday with family and friends. I’m here in USP Canaan, one of the most violent and dangerous prisons in the United States, while people celebrate their personal freedom in a country, which is holding citizens as political prisoners, on its own soil.

Thankfully, most citizens will never know what it’s like to experience a Maximum Security Penitentiary, whether they stood up for freedom or not. Having been sent here from D.C.’s Gulag a month ago, it hasn’t taken long to get the idea of what I’m in for. A guard was stabbed here over 100 times, and the place was on lockdown because of a different stabbing when I arrived. The very next day, as we were coming off of lockdown, it was only an hour before there was another stabbing and a drug overdose… so back  we went, again, on lockdown. Whatever “heightened danger” the mace I used to defend my wife and I, on January 6, would not be enough to defend myself here, in a place like this. The danger is constant, and the things that happen here are unspeakable.

** Please give: www.givesendgo.com/G276B

I have more than 2 dozen, solid, legally correct and sound issues that could overturn my illegitimate conviction and free me, but, in addition to the constant danger here, I’m still struggling to figure out how I’m going to finance the very expensive appellate process. I have 4 counts of Assault w/Deadly Weapon (mace), but zero victims. I didn’t actually mace anybody. My most serious charge was for ‘Obstructing an Official Proceeding’, yet I left when people entered the building;  I never intended to disrupt anything. I even received an additional 10 years for ‘Disrupting Interstate Commerce’ because Safeway closed (as per the curfew Murial Bowser imposed that day), 3 hours after I’d left. . . and numerous other fabricated ‘offenses’. I’ve had 5 fraudulent, predatorial lawyers (such as John Pierce, the guy who ripped off Kyle Rittenhouse), before I found the good ones that I have now. I finally have legal help, but I need America’s help.

I did some military service after my high school days, and I’ve taken up for the underdog my entire life. And, when I got caught up in a government entrapment scheme, on January 6th, I didn’t hesitate to jump in to my fellow American’s defense. I’d give my life for my country’s freedom. Would you be willing to donate the cost of a July 4th cookout, for mine?

My own, personal Independence Day is on Easter Sunday, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If we’re to have an Independence Day as a nation, people need to help me, and others, in this fight for taking our country back. God bless us all.

Pete Schwartz
Political Prisoner
#28815-509

www.givesendgo.com/G276B

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/freedom-behind-fence-independence-day-maximum-security-prison/