Prosecutors are 'sending a message' by asking for harsher sentences for Oath Keepers defendants: DOJ official

• The DOJ wants harsher sentences for eight Oath Keepers members convicted over the Capitol riot.
• One department official told Insider the DOJ is "really sending a message" by appealing the 8 defendants' sentences.

The Justice Department took the unusual step this week of appealing the sentences of eight convicted members of the Oath Keepers, including its founder, over the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot — a move one department official told Insider shows the DOJ is "really sending a message here."

"It's very unusual for DOJ to appeal, but these are unusual cases and unusual times," said the Justice Department official, who requested anonymity to speak about the cases. "The key here is that the judge departed from DOJ's sentencing recommendations on [eight] defendants. There probably wouldn't be an appeal if it was just one."

Andrew Weissmann, an ex-top prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, also told Insider that it's "very rare" for "the government to take any appeal, particularly in sentencing, because the district court has an enormous discretion."

Weissmann said that the move shows that the DOJ believes the convicted Oath Keepers members committed an "incredibly serious offense" that warrants harsher sentences than the ones handed down by the judge overseeing their cases.

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes and the other defendants were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges, among others, related to the deadly 2021 Capitol riot.

US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years behind bars for his role in the insurrection — the most severe sentence to date for any of the more than 1,000 people who have been charged with crimes connected to the attack on the Capitol.

In Rhodes' case, prosecutors wanted a sentence of 25 years in prison.

The other defendants were also given shorter prison sentences than what the DOJ had requested.

In addition to Rhodes' sentence, the department also appealed the sentences of Kelly Meggs, who received 12 years behind bars; Kenneth Harrelson, who got four years; Jessica Watkins, who received 8.5 years; Roberto Minuta, who was sentenced to 4.5 years; Joseph Hackett, who got 3.5 years; Edward Vallejo, who received three years; and David Moerschel, who was also sentenced to three years.

It's not yet clear what the feds' legal arguments will be. The DOJ appeal filing didn't include details laying out prosecutors' reasoning; the department official told Insider those details will be laid out in court later.

The DOJ declined to officially comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Moerschel called the Justice Department's appeal "ridiculous."

"Typical DOJ, they got their pound of flesh and still want more," Moerschel's lawyer Scott Weinberg told Insider. "I wish they would channel their inner Elsa and just let it go," Weinberg said, referring to Disney's "Frozen" movie.

Minuta's attorney, William Shipley, told Insider in a statement: "The Government is legally entitled to appeal what it believes were errors made by the District Court during the sentencing process. But to the extent the Government believes the sentences imposed were simply not long enough, the intention to appeal is abusive and appears to be for the purpose of continuing to advance its inaccurate narrative about the Organization and the individual defendants such as Mr. Minuta."

"The Government sought sentences as if it had prevailed on every charge it brought, and that all its factual and legal claims had been vindicated by the trials," he said. "That is simply false."

Meggs' attorney declined to comment, and lawyers for Rhodes, Harrelson, Watkins, Hackett, and Vallejo did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.