Members of the extremist group Oath Keepers led by Stewart Rhodes planned an armed rebellion “to shatter the foundation of American democracy” – the peaceful transfer of presidential power – which culminated in their role in the attack on the US Capitol United States, a prosecutor told a jury. Monday at first trial for seditious conspiracy of the extensive investigation of January 6.
Rhodes and four co-defendants that day organized an “arsenal” of firearms in nearby Virginia and several forcibly violated the Capitol with a crowd to prevent Congress from confirming President Biden’s 2020 election victory, thwarting the will of US voters and elected representatives, Assistant US. attorney Jeffrey Nestler said during opening statements in federal court.
“That was their goal: to stop by any means necessary the legal transfer of presidential power, even taking up arms against the United States government,” Nestler said. Going down to Washington “to attack not just the Capitol, not just Congress, not just our government, but our country.”
During the sedition trial of the Oath Keepers on October 3, a US prosecutor told the jury that the extremist members planned to “destroy a foundation of American democracy”. (Video: Reuters)
Rhodes’ defense denounced the accusation as a “mischaracterization of the government and the reach of the government.” Oath Keepers came to Washington as “peacekeeping” security guards who “were not involved in most of the violence that occurred on January 6,” said attorney Phillip Linder, believing that President Donald Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize private militias, he said. reduce unrest and maintain power.
“That’s why he did what he did,” Linder said, adding that Rhodes would testify in his own defense. “You’re going to hear from Stewart Rhodes himself about who he is, about the Oath Keepers, what his role is and what his role was on January 6.”
The clashing views of democracy, patriotism and violence at the seat of the US government during the handover from Trump to Biden played out in the most anticipated trial since the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The trial de Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale law graduate who has become one of the most visible figures in the far-right anti-government movement, was held in a federal courthouse blocks from the Capitol where they unfolded the events 21 months ago. important legal and political test of the Biden administration’s promise to fight domestic terrorism, as well as the law and the courts.
Court prosecutors and lawmakers in a parallel House investigation describe the Oath Keepers as an anti-government group that played an outsized role in organizing people to come to the Capitol prepared for violence. The group’s leaders worked with Trump’s “Stop the Steal” post-election advisers who spent weeks making unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, including former national security aide Michael Flynn and longtime political confidant Roger Stone .
On the day the networks declared the election for Biden, Nov. 7, Rhodes shared a text with Stone and others asking, “What’s the plan?” the prosecution’s first witness, an FBI agent, testified. Wheels then shared an action plan for an anti-government uprising in Serbia that included storming its parliament.
Four days after Jan. 6, Nestler told jurors, Rhodes urged an intermediary to tell Trump, “It’s not too late to take action.” But the person secretly recorded Rhodes. “My only regret is that they should have brought rifles” into the city, Rhodes said in audio that Nestler played for jurors.
Nine of at least 33 alleged Oath Keepers members or associates arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 riot have pleaded guilty, including seven to conspiracy, and several are expected to testify for the government against Rhodes.
Rhodes and 10 others were indicted in January on three counts of conspiracy, conspiring to oppose by force federal authority and laws related to Biden’s swearing-in; obstructing an official congressional proceeding; and prevent legislators from fulfilling their duties. The first two charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Nine remaining defendants face trial this week and in early November on those charges and others alleging destruction of federal property, destruction of evidence and obstructing police in a riot.
Four others are on trial with Rhodes, including three who have served in the military. Kelly Meggs, 53, is a car dealer from Dunnellon, Florida. Kenneth Harrelson, 42, of Titusville, Fla., and Ohio militia leader and bar owner Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock, are Army veterans. Thomas Caldwell, 68, of Berryville, Va., is a retired Navy intelligence officer.
In a 75-minute opening statement, prosecutors outlined a 48-page, 17-count indictment and allegedly dramatic new details.
What you need to know about the Oath Keepers trial
Nestler told jurors that on Jan. 6, just as 14 Oath Keepers co-conspirators allegedly walked past police and through the doors of the Capitol’s east rotunda after walking up the steps in style and gear military, Rhodes retired “like a general overseeing the battlefield.” ” and did not enter the building. The prosecutor said Rhodes was recorded on video saying to lawmakers inside, “Knock your pants off. Sic semper tyrannis!”
“Thus always to tyrants,” Nestler translated from the Latin after playing the video for jurors.
“It’s what John Wilkes Booth shouted when he assassinated President Lincoln,” Nestler said.
Nestler gave the jury of nine men and seven women a panoramic view of the actions from the Nov. 3, 2020 election, through the attack on the Capitol and the first arrests of the co-defendants on Nov. 17 January 2021.
While Rhodes named his group after the oath taken by members of the US military “to defend the Constitution against all enemies,” Nestler argued that the philosophy “perverts the constitutional order.”
“He preaches to his followers that they should disobey orders he he says they’re unconstitutional,” Nestler said.
The prosecutor said Rhodes’ orders were deployed starting Nov. 4, and that he told an invitation-only message group of Oath Keepers leaders ignoring the election results: “We’re not going to get through this without a war civil. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit,” on November 10, after contacting Stone and Oath Keepers leaders, he openly issued a call to action “one step at a time” to Oath Keepers ” inspired by the Serbian plot that included storming the parliament after filling it. in the street and seeking the support of the police and the army.
Videos released show Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio meeting with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes the day before the Capitol attack. (Video: US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia)
On November 9, Rhodes outlined that they should use “code or shorthand” to describe his plan to stop the transfer of power through violence if necessary, linking it to Trump’s use of the Insurrection Act , “magic words” he gave them. “plausible denial” of any further action, Nestler alleged. Another “alarmed follower” recorded Rhodes saying in a conference call on November 9 that mentioning the law would give the group “legal cover” to bring firearms as part of “rapid reaction force” teams in Washington to use – them as necessary.
In open letters in December 2020, Rhodes detailed calls for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, saying “millions” of American gun owners were ready to answer his “call to arms.” Rhodes said that on January 6, if Congress challenged his false claims of a stolen election, “tens of thousands of patriotic Americans … will already be in Washington DC, and many of us will have our gear critical mission nearby, just outside of DC. , and we’ll take the call at that time.”
As officials, including Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr, and White House lawyers said there was no evidence of anything that could cast doubt on Biden’s victory, Rhodes wrote on Nadal: “The only chance we have is if we scare the s— out of them [Congress] and convince them that it will be time for torches and pitchforks,” Nestler said.
Rhodes purchased tens of thousands of dollars in firearms and related equipment in the days before and after January 6, and seven co-conspirators, including co-defendants Meggs, Harrelson and Caldwell, were seen keeping suitcases and bags of ‘firearms at a Comfort Inn in Arlington’s Ballston neighborhood across the Potomac, where “heavy” QRF teams from Florida, Arizona and North Carolina had rooms, Nestler said.
Meggs and Caldwell allegedly came up with plans to transport firearms by boat if the bridges to Washington were closed, Nestler said. Meggs and Harrelson and others engaged in firearms and “unconventional warfare” training in Florida, including from a man who Meggs allegedly told a cooperating witness drove into Washington with hand grenades inside his recreational vehicle that was later recovered by the FBI.
On Jan. 6, Meggs searched House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) inside the Capitol, while Watkins allegedly prevented police from guarding the entrance to the Senate chamber, Nestler said.
“We’re in the main dome right now. We’re kissing it. They’re throwing grenades, they’re doing shit shooting people with paintballs. But we’re here,” Watkins yelled through a talk radio app, according to a recording reproduced by Nestler.
“Get it, Jess,” replied an Illinois Oath Keepers leader who wasn’t in the Capitol, “This is… everything we’ve trained for!” Nestler said.
In his defense, Linder said the government and media accounts were wrong, that the indictment revealed little that wasn’t presented in the charging documents, and promised “surprises” when it came time for the defense to present evidence.
Linder said the defendants face “substantial prison time…