Convicted Oath Keeper's attorney says it's 'ridiculous' prosecutors appealed for a harsher sentence and that the feds should 'channel their inner Elsa and just let it go'
- A lawyer for a convicted Oath Keeper slammed the DOJ for appealing his client's sentence.
- Prosecutors requested a 10-year sentence for David Moerschel; he was ultimately sentenced to three.
An attorney for a convicted Oath Keeper for his role in the failed January 6, 2021, insurrection snapped at the Justice Department for appealing for a harsher sentence, saying prosecutors should take a page out of Elsa's playbook from the movie "Frozen" and "let it go."
"Typical DOJ, they got their pound of flesh and still want more," Scott Weinberg, who represents David Moerschel, told Insider. "I wish they would channel their inner Elsa and just let it go."
The department took the unusual step Wednesday of appealing the sentences of eight Oath Keepers convicted on multiple counts — including seditious conspiracy for some — in connection to the deadly mob at the US Capitol seeking to install Donald Trump as president.
Moerschel was among nine people who were indicted on seditious conspiracy and other charges, and he was sentenced in June.
Prosecutors asked him to get 10 years in prison, but the judge ultimately handed down a three-year sentence.
The defendants whose sentences the DOJ appealed are Moerschel, Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, and Edward Vallejo.
US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Rhodes, 57, to 18 years in prison for his role in the riot, the harshest sentence handed down to any of the hundreds of people indicted related to the failed insurrection. But that number fell short of the 25 years the DOJ had requested.
One department official Insider spoke to Thursday said the DOJ's decision to appeal the eight defendants' sentences showed that it was "really sending a message." And a former federal prosecutor who worked with ex-special counsel Robert Mueller said the move indicates that the feds see the offenses as "incredibly serious."