After cooperating with prosecutors for over two years and admitting to his role in the seditious conspiracy to stop the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, Brian Ulrich, a former Georgia member of the Oath Keeper extremist group, was sentenced to 36 months, or three years, of probation on Tuesday, in line with a considerably lenient request from the Justice Department.
Prosecutors had asked that Ulrich spend three years on supervised probation, do 120 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution to go toward the nearly $3 million in damages done to the Capitol. Ulrich was mostly unopposed to those terms and told the court he has had no contact with Oath Keepers since he was released on a $25,000 bond in August 2021.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to impose the $2,000 restitution order during Tuesday’s hearing.
Ulrich could have faced up to 20 years for his charges if he hadn’t cooperated with prosecutors.
On Jan. 6 and in the weeks leading up to it, Ulrich was under the direction of Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, who was hellbent on opposing the transfer of power to then President-elect Joe Biden from Donald Trump.
Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and on Oath Keepers to stop Biden, whom he called a “Chinese communist,” from entering the White House. Rhodes publicly and prominently believed the election had been stolen due to widespread voter fraud, and he often spoke of a coming civil war that would be required to stop Biden from taking power.
Ulrich admitted he was one of Rhodes’ foot soldiers who rallied under that banner.
“And if there’s a civil war, then there’s a civil war,” Ulrich wrote in one December 2020 message to fellow Oath Keepers just ahead of the insurrection.
In April 2022, Ulrich struck a plea deal and admitted to felony charges of seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. He was only the second Oath Keeper to break ranks. Joshua James, an Alabama Oath Keeper chapter leader who served as GOP operative Roger Stone’s security detail on Jan. 5, was the first to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy.
Ulrich admitted that he had a knife and was intent on stopping the certification when he went to the Capitol with Rhodes and other members of the group. He wept when he entered his guilty plea before Mehta in 2022.
As part of his plea deal, the Georgia man admitted that he used the encrypted messaging app Signal to talk to Oath Keepers; evidence confirmed that Rhodes put him in a text group known as “DC OP: Jan 6 21.” Members used the group to discuss how they planned to get to Washington and how they would transport tactical gear or weapons.
In one message sent in December 2020, Ulrich told members that he was planning on carrying two backpacks at the Capitol: one for his personal belongings and the other with an “ammo load out with some basics I can switch to if shit truly [hits] the fan blades … I will be the guy running around with the budget AR.”
Ultimately, after a conversation with another Oath Keeper about the “ammo load out,” he decided not to bring any firearms or ammunition into Washington personally.
But he testified that his co-conspirators did indeed haul huge numbers of guns and ammunition for their “quick reaction force,” or QRF, at a hotel in northern Virginia. There, Oath Keepers stashed dozens of boxes and bags packed to the brim with weapons and ammunition. They carried firearms in dollies and carts draped with blankets so as not to alarm hotel staff.
Ulrich admitted that he, James and other Oath Keepers had traveled around the D.C. metropolitan area in two vehicles on Jan. 4 as well. Ulrich also confirmed that James was in one of those cars separate from himself, and it was James’ car that contained multiple guns meant for the QRF, including semi-automatic handguns and shotguns.
Ulrich arrived at the Capitol on Jan. 6 after hearing news reports about rioters overtaking police. That morning, he was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington with James and others. They decided to leave on golf carts; sporting protective vests and goggles, Ulrich and his fellow Oath Keepers zipped through the streets and past police barricades, at times with another Oath Keeper, Roberto Minuta, filming them.
Ulrich never said that he had been part of conversations that involved an explicit plan to stop the transfer of power. But he admitted that it was implied.
When the Oath Keepers finally arrived at the steps of the Capitol, they clasped hands on each other’s backs to form a “stack” formation that would let them barrel through the crowd, Ulrich testified. It was understood that this was a moment of “coming together for us to do something,” he said.
That “something” was “to stop the vote count,” court transcripts of his testimony show.
When Ulrich breached the Capitol building, he wasn’t inside for long, nor was he violent. He did not assault police and did not go further than the lobby. Police cleared him out shortly after he entered. Ulrich then went to find Rhodes and met with him and other Oath Keepers who were gathered outside of the Capitol.
Prosecutors said that Ulrich, who had no criminal history prior to the insurrection, showed “tremendous acceptance of responsibility” when he agreed to cooperate and gave the U.S. government “substantial assistance” in its prosecution of the most serious cases to emerge from the probe into Jan. 6.
In a sentencing memorandum, Ulrich’s attorneys noted that Ulrich had admitted to making a “series of bad choices that led him to this legal reckoning” and that much of what he did in the beginning when chatting with Oath Keepers was simply about “fanning the flames of discord and violence regarding the transfer of presidential power to Joseph R. Biden.”
Nonetheless, he admitted he still came to Washington, purchased two-way radios and tactical gear, and was intent on stopping the certification.
“Mr. Ulrich has refused multiple interview requests and has strictly avoided making any public comments about the charges against him. He is embarrassed at what his actions have caused his country, his family and his person,” lawyer A.J. Balbo wrote in a Nov. 8 sentencing memorandum.
To date, seditious conspiracy is the most serious charge to emerge from the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation.
Oath Keepers were charged in batches because a single courtroom could not accommodate all of the defendants and their lawyers.
Rhodes is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence for his role in the seditious conspiracy. His second in command, Kelly Meggs, is serving 12 years after a jury found him guilty of seditious conspiracy as well. Three others charged alongside Rhodes and Kelly were acquitted of that most serious charge: Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell. Watkins was sentenced to 8 1/2 years; Harrelson received four years. Caldwell has yet to be sentenced; he was supposed to be on Monday, but that hearing was punted to Dec. 20 following an order from Mehta.
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A second batch of Oath Keepers, including Minuta, David Moerschel, Edward Vallejo and Joseph Hackett, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy as well. Minuta received 4 1/2 years; Vallejo and Moerschel received three years; and Hackett received 3 1/2 years.
Members of the extremist Proud Boys were also convicted of seditious conspiracy, including leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest to date of any Jan. 6 defendant. Tarrio’s cohort and former Infowars contributor, Joe Biggs, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 17 years. Two other Proud Boys also received lengthy sentences for seditious conspiracy, including Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean, both of whom received 15 and 18 years, respectively.
Several of the Proud Boys have already indicated they will seek pardons from Trump once he takes office. Norm Pattis, a lawyer for Biggs, told The New York Times last week that he sent a letter to Trump seeking clemency and argued that a blanket pardon for Jan. 6 rioters would inspire unity across the nation.
Requests for pardons have been steadily creeping into more Jan. 6 cases since the election earlier this month. Politico reported on Tuesday that during a hearing for a Jan. 6 defendant, a federal judge expressed that it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if Trump grants blanket pardons or “anything close” to it.
Trump has said he would grant pardons to Jan. 6 defendants, but he’s been unclear on whether that means all or just some.