Oath Keepers demo: Jan. 6 was ‘rebellion,’ prosecutor states

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (VFAB) — The founder of the Oath Keepers extremist team and four associates prepared an “armed rebellion” to preserve President Donald Trump in energy, a federal prosecutor contended Monday as the most critical case nonetheless went to trial in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Stewart Rhodes and his band of extremists were geared up to go to war to cease Joe Biden from starting to be president, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Jeffrey Nestler instructed jurors. The team celebrated the Capitol attack as a victory in that combat and ongoing their plot even immediately after Biden’s electoral victory was certified, Nestler alleged.

“Their aim was to halt, by what ever means essential, the lawful transfer of presidential ability, including by having up arms against the United States govt,” the prosecutor mentioned for the duration of his opening statement. “They concocted a approach for armed revolt to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”

The five males are the to start with Jan. 6 defendants to stand trial on the charge of seditious conspiracy, a unusual Civil War-era demand that phone calls for up to 20 yrs powering bars. The stakes are higher for the Justice Section, which past secured a seditious conspiracy conviction at demo almost 30 many years in the past, and intends to try out two extra groups on the cost later this calendar year.

Protection attorneys accused prosecutors of cherry-picking proof from messages and video clips and stated the govt has no evidence there ever was any system to assault the Capitol. Rhodes’ attorney claimed his customer will consider the stand and present that the Oath Keepers had basically been preparing for orders they expected from Trump but under no circumstances arrived.

“Stewart Rhodes intended no hurt to the Capitol that day. Stewart Rhodes did not have any violent intent that day,” Rhodes’ legal professional, Phillip Linder, explained. “The tale the government is attempting to explain to you today is fully wrong.”

On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, chief of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia, and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia team. They face numerous other charges as very well.

They are among the around 900 individuals who have been billed in the assault, which temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s electoral victory, despatched lawmakers running for go over and still left dozens of law enforcement officers wounded.

In the Oath Keepers circumstance, prosecutors will consider to establish that their actions had been not a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage but element of a thorough, drawn-out plot to stop Biden from entering the White Household.

The Oath Keepers “were geared up in November, they ended up prepared in December and when the opportunity last but not least offered alone on Jan 6, 2021, they sprang into motion,” Nestler reported.

Rhodes began plotting to overturn Biden’s victory appropriate after the election, Nestler reported. In November 2020, Rhodes sent his followers a step-by-stage system for stopping the transfer of energy primarily based on a popular rebellion that brought down Yugoslavia’s president two many years previously. As December approached, Rhodes’ rhetoric turned more and more violent and determined, Nestler reported.

In messages and opinions browse to the jury, the Oath Keepers consistently warned of violence if Biden ended up to turn into president. In the course of a December interview, Rhodes termed senators “traitors” and warned that the Oath Keepers would have to “overthrow, abort or abolish Congress.” He described Jan. 6 as a “hard constitutional deadline” for halting the transfer of power.

The Oath Keepers structured teaching, including one session on “unconventional warfare.” Prior to coming to Washington, they established up “quick reaction force” teams with “weapons of war” stashed at a Virginia resort so they could get them into the cash speedily if vital, the prosecutor claimed.

As Oath Keepers stormed the Capitol in helmets and other fight equipment, Rhodes remained on the outside the house, like “a basic surveying his troops on a battlefield,” Nestler mentioned. Just after the assault, the elated Oath Keepers went to a Virginia cafe to celebrate their victory, the prosecutor reported.

They prepared to proceed “that war,” but “thankfully their strategies have been foiled,” Nestler explained.

In the times between the riot and Biden’s inauguration, Rhodes expended far more than $17,000 on firearm elements, ammunition and other goods, prosecutors say. About a week after the insurrection, Rhodes was secretly recorded indicating that his “only regret is that they should really have introduced rifles,” Nestler claimed.

Prosecutors confirmed jurors a slew of movies, like exhibiting Meggs, Harrelson and many others firing AR-15 fashion rifles at targets at a assortment. Meggs despatched the online video, set to rock new music, to a group on Jan. 5 and declared: “We are prepared!” the prosecutor stated.

Among those people expected to testify in the course of the trial, which will very last a number of weeks, are three Oath Keepers who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and are cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of acquiring lighter sentences. They involve a person who suggests that soon after arriving in Washington, Meggs instructed him that another Florida Oath Keeper experienced introduced explosives in his RV.

The government’s to start with witness was a FBI agent, who responded on Jan. 6 to help rescue senators. He described lawmakers crying, damaged doors and windows and a scene that “looked like a bomb had absent off.”

Protection attorneys say prosecutors have ripped the Oath Keepers’ messages out of context to paint them unfairly. The Oath Keepers came to Washington to offer safety at functions for figures this sort of as Trump ally Roger Stone before the president’s significant outside rally behind the White Home, protection attorneys reported. Rhodes’ lawyer explained the team as a “peacekeeping” power and named his consumer an “extremely patriotic” gentleman who “loves this country.”

Rhodes’ lawyers program to argue that Rhodes believed Trump was likely to heading to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up a militia, which Rhodes had been calling on him to do to stop Biden from getting to be president. Rhodes’ legal professionals have said he was simply lobbying the president to invoke a U.S. law.

Prosecutors say it is obvious the Oath Keepers had been going to act no matter of what Trump did. Nestler told jurors that Rhodes, a Yale Regulation Faculty graduate, was only using the Insurrection Act as “legal go over.” In one particular information, Rhodes wrote in December 2020 that Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.”

An legal professional for Caldwell reported his client is a disabled veteran who did not even know of the Oath Keepers right up until November 2020. The protection lawyer, David Fischer, referred to as Jan. 6 a “black eye” for the state, but explained Caldwell simply came to Washington “on a date with his wife” and wasn’t planning to go to the Capitol until eventually Trump’s speech on the Ellipse in advance of the riot.

“Mr. Caldwell couldn’t storm his way out of a paper bag,” Fischer reported. “I came listed here to apparent his identify.”

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