Indian American U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta Casts Himself as the Unapologetic Defender of American Democracy
- He imposed the longest sentence on Oath Keepers’ founder and leader in the sedition case related to Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
An Indian American federal judge has sentenced Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, to 18 years in prison. The May 25 sentence issued by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta was “the longest so far in the federal investigation of the Capitol attack and the first issued to a defendant convicted of sedition,” The New York Times reported.
Rhodes, 58, was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, D.C., jury in November “in a historic criminal trial,” the Times noted. It said Rhodes’ trial was “a test of the Justice Department’s ability to hold January 6 rioters accountable and validated prosecutors’ arguments that the breach of the Capitol was a grave threat to American democracy.”
Noting that Rhodes expressed no remorse for his involvement and actions, a visibly angry Mehta told him and the court that he poses “an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country.” Before handing down the sentence, he told the court: “What we absolutely cannot have is a group of citizens who – because they did not like the outcome of an election, who did not believe the law was followed as it should be – foment revolution,” CNN said.
According to The Times, “the sentence was the end of a tumultuous and unusual career that included Army service, a stint on Capitol Hill and a law degree from Yale.”
The Gujarat-born Judge Mehta was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December 2014, becoming the first Asia Pacific American appointment there.
A second Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida contingent of the group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. While the prosecutors had asked for Meggs to be sentenced to 21 years in prison calling him the “intellectual and moral center of this conspiracy,” he “showed contrition for his actions on January 6 and apologized to his family members in the courtroom through tears,” the CNN report said.
Mehta also explained the differing sentences for the two. “He is not Mr. Rhodes. He’s just not,” he said of Meggs, as reported by CNN. “He does not pose the same kind of threat as Mr. Rhodes. He is not the intellectual and spiritual leader.”
Before the May 25 sentencing of Rhodes, Mehta had sentenced Thomas Webster, a retired New York City police officer who was convicted of several felonies during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. At the time, it was the longest sentencing related to the insurrection.
The Gujarat-born Judge Mehta was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December 2014, becoming the first Asia Pacific American appointment there. Early in his tenure on the federal bench, he made waves with a case in which the Federal Trade Commission was seeking to block the proposed merger of the nation’s two largest food distributors, Sysco Corp. and US Foods.
He made history in October 2021 when he ruled that a former Afghan militant was being held unlawfully at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, making it the first time in 10 years that a detainee won such a case against the U.S. government. Mehta entered a final order and two classified opinions in the case of Asadullah Haroon Gul, who was captured in 2007 by Afghan forces. He was later turned over to the U.S. and remains one of the last 39 detainees at the prison in Cuba.