WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy veteran convicted two years ago at trial alongside the leader of the Oath Keepers will continue waiting to be sentenced after federal prosecutors asked a judge for another delay this week.
Thomas Caldwell, 69, of Berryville, Virginia, spent 10 weeks before a jury sitting alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and several of his lieutenants. Prosecutors argued Caldwell was a key player in the militia’s planning for Jan. 6 who talked about starting a civil war prior to coming to D.C. Jurors convicted Rhodes and another defendant, Kelly Meggs, of seditious conspiracy – but acquitted Caldwell on all conspiracy counts.
Caldwell, who argued throughout his case that he was never a member of the Oath Keepers, was convicted on only two counts. One, obstruction of an official proceeding, was vacated earlier this year following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The only remaining charge Caldwell faces is a count of tampering with documents for deleting messages sent after the Capitol riot.
After years of delays, Caldwell was scheduled to be sentenced Friday afternoon. On Wednesday, however, prosecutors asked the judge overseeing his case to delay that hearing for two to three weeks to allow them to provide him with additional briefing about the evidence tampering charge. According to their filing, Caldwell’s attorney does not oppose the delay.
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Federal prosecutors want Caldwell to serve 48 months, or four years, in prison. That would require an upward departure of nearly a full year from the top of the guidelines range they calculate he now faces and put him on par with the sentence given to one of his co-defendants, Kenneth Harrelson. Unlike Harrelson, who entered the Capitol wearing tactical gear in what prosecutors described at trial as a military-style “stack,” Caldwell wore street clothes, was accompanied by his wife and made it only to the exterior of the Lower West Terrace on the opposite side of the building from the militia members.
Nevertheless, prosecutors said, Caldwell was an “avid and willing participant in an unprecedented crime.” In a sentencing memo filed last month, they highlighted evidence presented at trial of his efforts to plan the Oath Keepers’ “QRF,” or quick reaction force – a cache of weapons stored at a hotel in Northern Virginia – and discussions about obtaining a boat to ferry those guns across the Potomac River.
Prosecutors also pointed to Caldwell’s incessant violent rhetoric. In a message on Jan. 1, 2021, Caldwell told an associate, “Trump will win on the 6th if not im personally gonna start the civil war myself so f***ing tired of these libtards.”
After the riot, Caldwell bragged that he’d urged the crowd to “storm the place and hang the traitors.” In another message to one of his co-defendants, Donovan Crowl, Caldwell wrote, “If we’d had guns I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians. They ran off and were spirited away through their tunnels like the rats they are.”
But prosecutors’ memo failed to acknowledge several missteps made during the investigation into him – missteps that could explain why jurors eventually declined to convict him on any conspiracy counts linking him to the Oath Keepers.
Caldwell was arrested on Jan. 19, 2021, amid a shock and awe campaign by the FBI and D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office meant to discourage any possible plans for violence at the inauguration. In charging documents, investigators said Caldwell was “believed to have a leadership role within the Oath Keepers.” That was wrong. Investigators also believed Caldwell was providing instructions to militia members via a Zello chat on Jan. 6. That was also incorrect.
Caldwell had, in fact, only met Rhodes two months earlier during a chance encounter at a political event in Virginia after the election. While he did allow the Oath Keepers to camp out at his Shenandoah Valley property ahead of a D.C. event in support of President-elect Donald Trump – and maintained contact with members of the militia from different chapters – Caldwell never joined the group. Instead, according to a message he sent to a North Carolina Oath Keeper, he saw himself as “allied” with that state’s chapter.
“I think I still have a lot to give especially if you start operating in my backyard as it were,” Caldwell wrote in the message.
Defense attorney David Fischer argued at trial investigators had, in their haste, missed who Caldwell really was: an elderly, 100%-disabled veteran who “couldn’t storm his way out of a paper bag.” Fischer said all the violent rhetoric was “locker room talk and male bravado” by a then 65-year-old man who, he said, was only able to walk up the stairs at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because he had taken too many of the painkillers prescribed to treat a chronic back injury sustained while stationed in the Philippines.
In his sentencing memo last month, Fischer said Caldwell’s military service and litany of health issues should warrant no more time behind bars than the 53 days he spent in jail immediately following his arrest.
Caldwell’s sentence will be determined by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta. While Mehta sentenced Oath Keepers leader Rhodes to 18 years in prison, his sentences for other members of the militia have varied widely. The closest comparators may be Sandra and Bennie Parker, who traveled from Ohio to join the Oath Keepers on Jan. 6.
Sandra, 64, and Bennie, 73, were both convicted of conspiring to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Sandra, who actually entered the building with other members of the militia, was also convicted of conspiracy to prevent an officer of the United States from discharging a duty and destruction of government property. Last September, Mehta sentenced both Parkers to five years of probation.
Mehta has given some indication as to his view on Caldwell’s case. In an order last year upholding Caldwell’s convictions, Mehta said his messages about the “QRF” showed he was “explicit about the use of weapons and staging of weapons” outside D.C. for use on Jan. 6. Mehta also said he believed the evidence would have supported conviction on a felony count of civil disorder, had Caldwell been charged with it, as well as a separate conspiracy between him, Crowl and a third Oath Keeper, Jessica Watkins.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Mehta had not ruled on the motion to continue Caldwell’s sentencing, however uncontested motions for continuance are routinely granted.