The founder of a far-right extremist group who was convicted of organising the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has defended his threat of “civil war”.
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the so-called Oath Keepers, received an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy following the 2021 attack before Donald Trump pardoned him upon becoming president on Monday.
Rhodes, one of more than 1,500 people charged with federal crimes over the attack who have benefitted from Trump’s clemency, visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday after his release 24 hours earlier.
Sky News asked him about a text he sent to members of his anti-government militia before the riots, in which he said “we’re not getting through this without civil war”.
“If you don’t have fair elections, yes,” he said.
“That’s not… that’s protected by free speech.”
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A report from the non-partisan States United Democracy Center concluded claims of fraud and other election conspiracies in the 2020 vote were “entirely without basis”.
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Rhodes claimed he was convicted in a “show trial”.
“They would not let us have a venue change,” he said.
“The judges described the people of DC as ‘the victims’, then insisted on drawing the jury pool from the victim pool. You’re not going to have a fair trial.”
Rhodes claimed the deaths of police officers who defended the Capitol building from rioters were not linked to the attack.
The Capitol Police previously said police officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries suffered “while physically engaging with protesters” although the Washington medical examiner later ruled he had died of natural causes: multiple strokes that happened hours after his confrontation.
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The medical examiner added, however, that “all that transpired played a role in his condition”.
Three police officers who defended the Capitol building from rioters later killed themselves.
Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood both took their own lives within a month of the attack, while Gunther Hashida died the following July.
Trump said on Wednesday that attacks on police officers during the January 6 riots were “minor incidents”.
