The final defendant in the first Oath Keepers trial was sentenced Friday to prison for actions stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Thomas Caldwell, a U.S. Navy veteran from Virginia, was sentenced in 2022, along with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Prosecutors said he played a central role in the anti-government militia's Jan. 6 plan to call for civil war ahead of the riot.
However, while Rose was found guilty of seditious conspiracy, Caldwell was acquitted of all conspiracy charges. He was convicted of two other felonies, but one of those two charges was vacated after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the obstruction charges against numerous rioters.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta's decision not to jail or release him on supervised release reflects the 69-year-old Virginia man's only remaining conviction: tampering with evidence for deleting messages he sent after the riot.
On January 6, Caldwell did not enter the Capitol but joined the mob outside the Lower West Terrace on the opposite side of the building from militia members. Unlike the other Oath Keepers, who wore tactical gear that day, Caldwell was wearing street clothes. And his wife also accompanied him to the riot.
Caldwell said throughout the trial that he never officially joined the group and was not a member.
But prosecutors said he was an “enthusiastic and willing participant in an unprecedented crime” and that his actions on January 6th followed “weeks of conspiracy” with the Oath Keepers. He said it suggested that. They cited his efforts to help the group establish an armed “quick response force,” a stockpile of weapons stored across the Potomac River in case the plot moves south. .
The government asked Mehta to sentence Caldwell to: 4 years imprisonmentseeks an upward departure from federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors suggested that if he did not do so, Mr. Caldwell would face the same charges as if he “did not endanger the democratic process or interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.”
Caldwell opposed any upward deviation; prison termciting health issues and lack of a criminal history.
The verdict came after years of delays. Caldwell's co-defendants, including Rose, began their sentences nearly two years ago.
Mr. Rose was sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest sentences ever handed down in a riot that resulted in the conviction of hundreds of people.
