Sequoia Rhodes Adams Defects From Her Father

[Marmion]

In a recent development the estranged daughter of the Oath Keepers founder has been leading protests in favor of abortion rights , in Montana.  Yet another example of the children of fundies successfully making a life apart from their upbringing. 

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Stewart Rhodes is in jail for his role in the Jan. 6 riot. His daughter, once deeply anti-feminist, has turned on him—and has a new cause.

MISSOULA, Montana—A remote stretch in the northwest part of this state may seem an unlikely spot for a pro-choice rally on Independence Day weekend. The small town of Eureka, population roughly 1,400, is home to over a dozen churches, voted 73 percent for Donald Trump in 2020, and hosted a trucker protest of hundreds earlier this year at the Canadian border crossing 10 miles away.

Perhaps more unlikely is who’s organizing the rally: Sequoia Rhodes Adams, the 19-year-old daughter of Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes. The family patriarch is currently jailed awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to charges of seditious conspiracy related to what federal prosecutors say was his far-right group’s plot to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.    

“I was extremely anti-feminist growing up,” Sequoia told The Daily Beast, describing her political transformation into a pro-choice activist after the family fled what they have previously described as Rhodes’ violently abusive Montana home in 2018.

“He couldn’t even talk about abortion or he would freak out,” she said of her father.

Sequoia and her adult siblings recently leveled abuse allegations against their father in an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those claims came on top of allegations of violence made in a 2018 application for a restraining order by Sequoia’s mother Tasha, Rhodes’ estranged wife. (The restraining order was denied by a local judge, and divorce proceedings remain ongoing. But multiple family members leveled similar allegations of domestic violence in a recent Insider story.)  

Sequoia said in an interview this week that experiencing everyday sexism after escaping a lifetime of isolation in Rhodes’ home opened her eyes to the inequality women face in America.

“Once you have a kid, you’re stuck with them,” she told The Daily Beast.

“That’s why we couldn’t leave,” her mother, Tasha Adams, added in an interview. “Because we had so many kids.”

Tasha described Rhodes as controlling the family by “loading them down with responsibilities”—giant dogs, chickens—so that leaving would be a logistical nightmare. For her, the responsibility was children—six of them, the youngest born when Tasha, now 50, was 42, after three miscarriages and a stillbirth....  Daily Beast article

 

Edited July 3, 2022 by Marmion

[CTRLZero]

Thanks for posting this.  I clicked through to the Southern Poverty Law Center interview, which includes more details of life with Stewart Rhodes.  The kids didn’t have birth certificates, which caused them additional difficulties in their effort to escape.

SPLC interview  

[47of74]

22 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

Thanks for posting this.  I clicked through to the Southern Poverty Law Center interview, which includes more details of life with Stewart Rhodes.  The kids didn’t have birth certificates, which caused them additional difficulties in their effort to escape.

SPLC interview  

I looked at the SPLC interview myself.  When I first saw this thread I didn't know the head Oaf Keeper was once a lawyer.  He got his ass disbarred in Montana in 2015.

Quote

On April 28, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona filed an ethics complaint against Rhodes for appearing in court without a license to do so. On May 12, 2014, Roth lodged a complaint against Rhodes, stating that he had provided incompetent representation and had abandoned Roth in his civil suit in federal court. Rhodes did not respond to either complaint.

On July 30, 2014, the Montana Commission on Practice (COP) told Rhodes to personally appear before the COP on October 16, 2014, in Kalispell to address the complaints. He did not show up to the meeting.

The matter was then raised before the Montana Adjudicatory Panel of the Commission on Practice. On October 8, 2015, a hearing was held in Butte to address the complaint. Rhodes was told to appear before the commission to answer the grievances in person, but he again did not show up.

On Dec. 8, 2015, the Montana Supreme Court officially disbarred Rhodes from practicing law for conduct violating the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct.

Proving yet again that not every Ivy League lawyer is a good person. 

[Howl]

 I first became aware of him and Oath Keepers during the Ammon Bundy siege/occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016. 

Was there a fundamentalist component related to having numerous kids?  They definitely weren't using birth control if she was having multiple miscarriages and a still birth in her late 30s, in addition to the six kids. 

This Insider piece lays out Rhodes' violence towards her and their kids.  I'm glad she finally got away before Rhodes killed her or one of he kids. 

Oath Keepers founder's estranged wife is relieved at his Capitol Riot arrest, saying she and their 6 children lived in fear of his 'violent outbursts'

He met her  in Las Vegas when she was an 18-year-old ballroom dance instructor and he was 25.  He decided she should work as a stripper to support them while he was in college. 

I thought this was interesting:  Adams said she noticed a severe change in her husband after he took part in the Bundy standoff of 2014. The Oath Keepers supported the Bundys after the family of Nevada ranchers got into an armed standoff with federal officials over a refusal to pay fees to let their cattle graze on public lands.  She said Rhodes had a "downward mental spiral" around this time and his "violent outbursts" became more regular. 

 

[47of74]

1 minute ago, Howl said:

 I first became aware of him and Oath Keepers during the Ammon Bundy siege/occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016. 

This Insider piece lays out Rhodes' violence towards her and their kids.  I'm glad she finally got away before Rhodes killed her or one of he kids. 

Oath Keepers founder's estranged wife is relieved at his Capitol Riot arrest, saying she and their 6 children lived in fear of his 'violent outbursts'

He met her  in Las Vegas when she was an 18-year-old ballroom dance instructor and he was 25.  He decided she should work as a stripper to support them while he was in college.

Yeah, he seems nice.  I had heard of Stewart Rhodes before but just didn't have any idea that he was a former lawyer until very recently.

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

13 hours ago, Howl said:

 I first became aware of him and Oath Keepers during the Ammon Bundy siege/occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016. 

Was there a fundamentalist component related to having numerous kids?  They definitely weren't using birth control if she was having multiple miscarriages and a still birth in her late 30s, in addition to the six kids. 

This Insider piece lays out Rhodes' violence towards her and their kids.  I'm glad she finally got away before Rhodes killed her or one of he kids. 

Oath Keepers founder's estranged wife is relieved at his Capitol Riot arrest, saying she and their 6 children lived in fear of his 'violent outbursts'

He met her  in Las Vegas when she was an 18-year-old ballroom dance instructor and he was 25.  He decided she should work as a stripper to support them while he was in college. 

I thought this was interesting:  Adams said she noticed a severe change in her husband after he took part in the Bundy standoff of 2014. The Oath Keepers supported the Bundys after the family of Nevada ranchers got into an armed standoff with federal officials over a refusal to pay fees to let their cattle graze on public lands.  She said Rhodes had a "downward mental spiral" around this time and his "violent outbursts" became more regular. 

 

Wow- I cannot imagine how much strength and bravery it took for her to leave him. Thanks for posting the article. She managed to get her children and herself away from him and it is very clear he is both a dangerous and well connected man. She probably saved all of their lives if not in the literal sense then in the sense of keeping them from either being indoctrinated or having to fake it out of fear.