Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes jailed for 18 years over Capitol riot

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, has been jailed (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in prison for orchestrating a weeks-long plot that culminated in his followers attacking the US Capitol in a bid to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House after the 2020 election.

Stewart Rhodes is the first person charged in the January 6 2021, attack to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy, and his sentence is the longest that has been handed down so far in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases.