WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired Navy intelligence officer who was cleared of the most serious charges in his U.S. Capitol attack trial alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes avoided additional time behind bars when he was sentenced on Friday.
Thomas Caldwell was acquitted by a jury in Washington’s federal court of seditious conspiracy and two other conspiracy offenses in one of the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. And one of two counts he was found guilty on at trial was dismissed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
Prosecutors had alleged at trial that Caldwell helped coordinate “quick reaction force” teams prosecutors said the Oath Keepers stationed outside the capital city to get weapons into the hands of extremists if they were needed. The weapons were never deployed, and lawyers for the Oath Keepers said they were only there for defensive purposes in case of attacks from left-wing activists…