Oath Keepers head's 18 year sedition sentence is a warning shot for Trump: analyst

With special counsel Jack Smith reportedly zeroing on a possible indictment or more out of several investigations of Donald Trump, MSNBC analyst Jordan Rubin suggested that the former president should not be happy at how hard U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta came down hard on Oath Keepers head Stewart Rhodes during sentencing on Thursday.

Rhodes now faces the prospect of 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, with the judge telling him he was “targeting an institution of American democracy at its most important moment.”

One of the DOJ's investigations of Trump centers on his actions up to and during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol as lawmakers attempted to certify that 2020 presidential election results and charges against Trump could mirror Mehta's comments to Rhodes.

Stating Trump likely isn't resting easy after hearing the Oath Keeper verdict, Rubin wrote, "Rhodes’ lengthy federal sentence could serve as an uncomfortable reminder for Trump, who has expressed sympathy for people with Jan. 6-related convictions and has said he would pardon them if he becomes president again."

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"In addition to being investigated in Georgia and federally by a Justice Department special counsel, the Republican former president and 2024 presidential candidate already has an ongoing criminal prosecution in New York state court on charges that he falsified business records, with a trial set for March 2024," he wrote before adding a charge of sedition could have a ripple effect on the wave of criminal indictments the former president is facing.

Writing that the 34 Manhattan charges related to paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels "are low-level felonies and carry relatively little to no prison time." Rubin predicted, " If federal charges are added to Trump’s docket, his prison outlook could change drastically."

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