CNN –
In a tense, face-to-face exchange with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, prosecutors used Rhodes’ words from texts, speeches and interviews to suggest to the jury that the militia leader misled them when he testified that he did not know the other members. activities on January 6, 2021 and was appalled by the violence that day.
Rhodes is the first of five defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, to testify.
In his two-day testimony, Rhodes told the jury he was not involved in the details of the Jan. 6 planning and had no knowledge of plans for the so-called rapid reaction force the group established in Virginia to quickly move the weapons to Washington, as prosecutors have alleged.
Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy, however, showed the jury signal messages in which Rhodes told other members that “We’re going to have a QRF” on January 6 because “this situation calls for it” and was part of group messages where members shared photographs of the QRF routes. could be used to enter the city.
“The buck stopped with you on this operation,” Rakoczy told Rhodes, reading the leader’s messages aloud.
“Am I responsible for everything others have done?” Rhodes replied.
“You’re in charge, aren’t you?” Rakoczy said.
“Not if they do anything off mission,” he replied.
“That’s convenient,” Rakoczy said, smiling.
The militia leader also told prosecutors that he “hoped to avoid” conflict and was only concerned about the outbreak of civil war after Joe Biden became president, prompting Rakoczy to ask how ” there will be civil war”. [January] the 21st and not the six?
“I don’t understand the violence that happened” on Jan. 6, Rhodes testified. “Anyone who assaulted a police officer that day should be prosecuted for that.”
Rakoczy pointed to statements Rhodes made in a secretly taped conversation in the days after Jan. 6, where he said he wished Oath Keepers had brought rifles to the Capitol that day.
“If he’s not going to do the right thing, and he’s just going to let himself be taken illegally, then we should have brought rifles,” Rhodes said in the recording that prosecutors played back for the jury.
“We could have fixed it at the time,” Rhodes said of the Capitol attack, according to the recording. “I’d hang fucking King Pelosi from the lamppost.”
After playing the recording, Rakoczy asked Rhodes, “That’s what you said four days after the storming of the Capitol, right?”
“Yeah, after a couple of drinks and I got pissed off,” Rhodes stated.
Rhodes and the other four defendants have pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy charges.