When members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group, met online to discuss plans to stop the counting of electoral votes sealing Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021, Georgia resident Brian Ulrich signaled he was ready for anything.
“I will be the guy running around with the budget,” he wrote in an encrypted chat, referring to an assault weapon.
His tone changed following his arrest in August 2021 and subsequent indictment on sedition charges. Ulrich, who lives in Guyton, a small town northwest of Savannah, quickly entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors and agreed to testify against the other Oath Keepers in two trials.
During a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta sentenced Ulrich, 46, to three years’ probation, the first six months of which will be spent on house arrest, and 120 hours of community service. Ulrich must also pay $2,000 in restitution for pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, both felonies.
The light sentence — both charges carried the possibility of 20 years in prison — reflects the value Ulrich provided as a witness, as well as his lack of prior criminal convictions and acceptance of responsibility, prosecutors wrote in a presentencing memo.
Prosecutors had recommended eight months of house arrest along with probation, while Ulrich’s defense attorneys asked for probation with no home confinement.
Prosecutors recommended no prison time for Ulrich based, in part, on “the substantial assistance Ulrich has provided to law enforcement.”
Prosecutors wrote that, after his arrest, Ulrich quickly offered to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation. That cooperation was “truthful, complete and reliable” and his “testimony was incredibly impactful,” they wrote in a sentencing recommendation.
Credit: Effingham County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Effingham County Sheriff's Office
Ulrich took a risk in cooperating, prosecutors wrote.
“To plead guilty pursuant to a public cooperation plea agreement in a case that has garnered such national interest and, sadly, controversy, took courage on Ulrich’s part,” they wrote.
They also described Ulrich’s behavior on Jan. 6 and the weeks of planning that preceded it as “an isolated incident in an otherwise law-abiding life, although that fact also suggests Ulrich should have known better and makes his conduct on January 6 hard to comprehend.”
In a defense memo, Ulrich’s attorneys described his behavior as “a series of bad choices that led him to this legal reckoning” that began with joining the Oath Keepers.
“He is embarrassed at what his actions have caused his country, his family and his person,” his lawyers wrote.
Through his attorneys, Ulrich admitted to planning his trip to Washington and outfitting himself with a host of military-style equipment, including a two-way radio to communicate with members of the group, but his lawyers pointed out that he did not personally bring any firearms or ammunition.
Ulrich joined the Oath Keepers of Georgia in late November 2020, just weeks after the election, and took part in a conspiracy prosecutors described as “extensive in both its objective and size.”
Ulrich and others held planning sessions in encrypted chat rooms that included Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes. In one chat on the messaging app Signal, Rhodes wrote that if Trump did not find a way to keep Biden from taking office, “we will have to fight a bloody revolution civil war to defeat the traitors.”
“We must win. We must defeat these radicals … there’s treason at work here,” Ulrich responded. “When someone committed treason it used to mean something. You used to pay with your life!”
Rhodes told members of his group they needed to be prepared to use firearms to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. According to court records, Ulrich booked a hotel room in Washington on Dec. 19, 2020, for Jan. 6 and invited other members of his group to do the same.
In a separate chat, Ulrich warned if Trump “sits on his hands” that “millions die resisting the death of the 1st and 2nd amendment.”
As part of their planning, Rhodes, Ulrich and others arranged to have an armed group they called a “quick reaction force” stationed just outside Washington with a cache of weapons ready to come into the city when called. Ulrich and several members of the group drove to Washington in two vehicles, one of which was loaded with firearms and ammunition.
When thousands of people streamed from Trump’s speech at the Ellipse to the Capitol grounds, Rhodes ordered the group to move to the Capitol. Ulrich ferried members of the group to the Capitol on a golf cart.
Although Ulrich and other members of the group marched through the crowd and into the building, prosecutors wrote that Ulrich spent very little time inside and only made it as far as the foyer before encountering riot police who were clearing the building.
In trial testimony, Ulrich said the group’s goal was to “stop the vote count.”
The Oath Keeper sedition case resulted in the convictions of 25 people in two separate trials, including Ulrich and six other cooperating defendants.
