A former member of the anti-government Oath Keepers was sentenced to probation Tuesday after serving as a key witness for prosecutors in high-profile cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Georgia man Brian Ulrich pleaded guilty in 2022 to seditious conspiracy — plotting to use force to oppose the authority of the U.S. government. It’s the most serious charge to emerge from the riot, where supporters of President-elect Trump stormed the Capitol as Congress certified the win of his Democratic opponent, President Biden.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Ulrich to three years of probation with six months of home detention and 120 hours of community service, suggesting Tuesday he’s owed a “debt of gratitude” for having the courage to accept responsibility and help the nation “heal and move forward.”
Prosecutors said in court papers that Ulrich provided “substantial assistance” to the government in its prosecution of other Oath Keepers, asking the judge for a sentence that included no prison time. Ulrich is the first person to be sentenced after pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy in a Jan. 6 case.
Ahead of Jan. 6, the Oath Keepers plotted to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election in encrypted chats, prosecutors alleged.
“Ulrich echoed Rhodes’ drumbeat about the need to use any means necessary, including violence, to stop the certification of the election, quipping, ‘And if there’s a Civil War then there’s a Civil War,'” prosecutors wrote, referencing Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.
Though never used, the group stashed a cache of guns at a Virginia hotel that could be transported into Washington, D.C., and established “quick reaction force” teams. At trial, several Oath Keepers argued that they never planned to attack the Capitol, but prosecutors said they seized on the moment.
Rhodes was convicted by a jury of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison for orchestrating the plot. Several other extremist group leaders, including other Oath Keepers, were convicted of sedition.
Ulrich did not testify in Rhodes’s trial — the first for Oath Keepers leaders — but he did take the stand at a second trial against other members of the group who were convicted. His attorney said in court filings he distanced from the group after the riot.
Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, and it ballooned into a major extremist force in the U.S. However, his jailing practically dissolved the group.
Three other former Oath Keepers who cooperated with the government have also been sentenced to probation.
The Associated Press contributed.
