WASHINGTON (CN) — A man hired by Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers, to provide extra security for Roger Stone and act as an “operations leader” on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to two years of probation Friday.
A jury this past March convicted Michael Greene, 40, on one misdemeanor charge related to entering a restricted area around the Capitol and acquitted him of conspiring to interfere with officers, conspiring to obstruct the election certification and of evidence tampering.
Before receiving his sentence from U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, Greene defended his actions, saying that it was just a job to him and that he was not a member of the Oath Keepers.
“The only thing I’m guilty of is taking a job with white folks that other white folks view as unfavorable,” Greene, a Black man, said Friday.
Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, emphasized the lack of evidence against Greene, particularly in regard to his participation in an encrypted group chat used by senior members of the Oath Keepers such as Rhodes, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins to plan what Rhodes referred to as a “bloody revolution” at the Capitol.
The group chat, titled “DC OP: Jan 6,” and the messages within were a centerpiece in the government’s case against Rhodes, Meggs, Watkins and other Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced in May. Greene sent a single message, Mehta pointed out, saying that he was just “someone who Stewart Rhodes met and hired for extra security.”
Greene, who spent 24 years in the military and served in Kuwait and Iraq, gave an interview to the magazine Mother Jones in June 2021 where he said that following his service, he worked as a military contractor for the private security company Blackwater, then began working for Rhodes in 2017.
Greene’s sentence comes as the Justice Department has appealed the sentences of eight Oath Keepers earlier this week, including Rhodes, Meggs, and Watkins as well as Kenneth Harrelson, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo.
The group received sentences ranging from 18 years for Rhodes — the longest of any Jan. 6 defendant — to three years for Vallejo and Moerschel. In each defendant’s case, the Justice Department had sought much longer sentences, including 27 years for Rhodes.
The appeals are a signal that prosecutors view the sentences as too short, but the appeals filed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit provided no rationale for the objection.
Federal prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy disagreed with Mehta’s ruling on Greene’s role in the Oath Keepers, describing him as a mercenary for hire who was very intentional in leaving a minimal trail of evidence.
“Greene was a very careful criminal and a very careful leader in this conspiracy,” Rakoczy said. “The fact that Greene was clever in his participation should not be rewarded.”
According to the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum, Greene was a “trusted top lieutenant to Rhodes” who was put in charge the Jan. 6 operations and coordinated with other leaders like Meggs to bring more Oath Keepers to the front of the mob and breach the Capitol. Greene himself did not enter the building.
Prosecutors had sought a 12-month sentence for Greene, which Rakoczy said was specifically meant to deter similar mercenary actions and that anything less than a year in prison would be a “grave error.”
In the 30 months since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the Justice Department has charged more than 1,000 people for their actions during the riot. Approximately 561 people have been sentenced. The investigation remains ongoing, with approximately 323 people who committed violent acts still unidentified.
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