Another member of Oath Keepers pleads guilty in Capitol riot

A third member of the Oath Keepers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Mark Grods of Alabama pleaded guilty in a D.C. federal court to conspiracy to stop or delay the certification of the Electoral College results, as well as obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting.

Prosecutors first signaled the plea agreement in recently unsealed court filings.

According to court records, Grods and other defendants rode in a golf carts, and parked them at the intersection between Third Street and Pennsylvania Ave. Northeast on Jan. 6. The group then walked toward the Capitol.

The group then allegedly moved together in a military “stack,” using hand signals to maintain coordination while advancing toward the Capitol.

The group allegedly stormed past police barriers and entered the Capitol through the East Rotunda doors, “minutes after others Grods had traveled with had entered the same doors and assaulted law enforcement officers in the Rotunda,” prosecutors allege.

Grods allegedly entered the Capitol with what is described in the court documents as a “large stick.”

Authorities also charge that Grods brought firearms to D.C., and provided them to another individual to store in a Virginia hotel.

Grods’s plea is part of the government’s large conspiracy case against the Oath Keepers.

He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case, which includes testifying against other defendants in court if needed. 

The maximum penalty for the conspiracy charge is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, no more than three years of supervised release. The obstruction charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, along with the same fine and supervised release terms as the conspiracy charge. 

However, based on current sentencing guidelines, Grods is facing between 51 and 63 months in prison, or 4 1/4- 5 1/4 years in prison. He is also looking at paying a fine between $20,000 and $200,000. 

Grods is the second Oath Keeper to admit to being a part of a military stack that entered the Capitol. Graydon Young last week pleaded guilty to being a member of the stack that stormed the Capitol.

Jon Ryan Schaffer, a founding member of the Oath Keepers, became the first Oath Keeper to plead guilty in April in a separate case over the riots.

Updated at 3:04 p.m.