The Oath Keepers in the midst of the January 6 attack: a campaign rally for Donald Trump and an investigation into the attack on the Washington Post office
The founder of the Oath Keepers, a self-proclaimed libertarian, testified that his mission was to help people understand the rights of the Constitution.
Over the course of the last few days, prosecutors have introduced a lot of evidence, including testimony from former members of Oath Keepers and a recording of an Oath Keepers video meeting. They deployed the evidence to depict Mr. Rhodes as in thrall to fears that the Chinese government had helped rig the election against Mr. Trump and that leftist antifa activists were abetting the plot with violence on the ground whenever Trump supporters gathered in protest.
A prosecutor at the Federal District Court in Washington said that the government has had a custom of transferring power from George Washington to John Adams since 1797.
The Justice Department investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol has been the most consequential yet. According to accusations, Rhodes and the other defendants plotted to use force to prevent Biden from becoming president.
A group of Oath Keepers who are currently on trial for their involvement in the January 6th US Capitol attack were gathered in September for a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump.
At both events, lawyers for the group and witnesses have said, the Oath Keepers used their military and law-enforcement training to set up channels of communication and to conduct reconnaissance. They also staged armed “quick reaction forces” outside Washington that were ready to rush to the aid of their associates in the city if things got out of hand.
Observations from the Oath Keepers trial: The lawyers, jurors, and the DOJ in Rhodes’s room
The trials operate on their own rhythms and have a mix of people that seem familiar. Here’s a glimpse at what it’s like inside the room.
What’s unusual is that Rhodes, the most prominent defendant in the case, with a distinctive black eye patch, is continuing to speak outside the courtroom, too.
This week, while the trial was on break for a federal holiday, and while in federal custody, Rhodes gave a telephone interview to InfoWars, a website known for peddling conspiracy theories, likening himself to a martyr.
Rhodes compared himself to Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader, who spent more than two decades in prison. “You have to be willing to take the hit if you’re a person who’s a freedom fighter and is standing up for rights. Because if you don’t, then what you become is a slave.”
In opening statements, lawyers for Rhodes and the four other defendants signaled they would strive to present jurors with a complete record. For every text the Justice Department introduces, they’ll push for several more in a string. The defense will try for jurors to see the full recording of the video snippets the prosecutors play. The DOJ is mischaracterising the goals of the Oath Keepers to cause a stir in the jury and obtain a full picture of events.
That strategy risks testing the patience of Judge Mehta and the jury. It has led to lengthy arguments over the phone or on the bench, while jurors and audience hear the loud courtroom noises.
The Oath Keepers trial will last into the first or second week in November, according to Judge Mehta who told lawyers about the case this week. Prosecutors wanted to call about 40 witnesses over the next 3 1/2 weeks. They’re not quite there through week two.
The Justice Department brought two serious cases following the siege on the Capitol, one of which was seditious conspiracy against Oath Keepers. Inside the same courthouse prosecutors continue their work in secret while grand juries investigate the money and organization behind the January 6 rally and a scheme to replace slates of legitimate electors in swing states.
The witness testified that Rhodes asked the Secret Service agent about what types of weapons might be allowed near the site. Although prosecutors did not dwell on the issue, the fact that Donald Trump’s dealings with the Secret Service on the day of the Capitol attack and missing text messages from agents made them want to look into it.
Lawyers for Rhodes call that language bombast and bravado and they say the government is stretching when it alleges a formal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election.
The defense teams used the lack of explicit text messages or recorded conversations among the defendants to highlight a plot to burst through the doors of the capitol and stop the electoral count.
The Oath Keepers: Why Did Dolan and Harrelson Attempt to Take the Stand? A Defense Attorney’s Report on a Case Study
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said that individuals from the Oath Keepers have contacted the agency in the past.
The first of several Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty in connection with the same alleged conspiracy to take the stand is a 46-year-old former Marine.
He made clear that members of the extremist group intended to try and keep then-President Donald Trump in power by intimidating Congress, which was meeting on January 6, 2021, to certify the election results.
He said he wanted the jury to be afraid of him. People act out of kindness, they act out of charity, but they act out of fear as well. If they weren’t going to do the right thing, maybe I can scare them.
His jaw-dropping testimony is critical as prosecutors seek to establish that Oath Keepers members methodically prepared to stop the certification of the 2020 election – and what they were prepared to do if Congress didn’t comply.
The jury was gripped by his testimony, furiously taking notes and watching Dolan on the stand, and members of the jury gasped when Dolan’s firearms were brought into the room. Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell were all looking at Dolan as he took the stand. The fifth defendant, Kenneth Harrelson, did not appear to look at Dolan. The five have all denied the charges.
The prosecutors asked Dolan how he understood Signal messages from the five defendants, his beliefs about the structure of the organization, and how the group planned for the day.
“I didn’t feel like I was alone,” Dolan said, adding that the organization gave him a sense of belonging. He liked that the majority of the group was military or law enforcement veterans, who were just like him.
As he sat in his garage in early December, Dolan would read Signal messages coming in on the encrypted group message channel for Florida members of the Oath Keepers, he said.
Dolan testified that it would be treasonous to stand up against the incoming administration, that he did not see as legitimate. I was preparing myself for that. I was trying to get into my mind that I would be viewed as an enemy to the country, although I viewed myself as fighting for our country.”
He testified that he arrived at the Capitol on January 6 after a crowd had begun to form. The crowd Reaction when they heard that Pence had moved forward with the certification
“You had a pissed off angry crowd,” Dolan said. I know from my perspective that it was unlikely that there would be hundreds of thousands of people in one place, and so it seemed to me that if something were to happen to stop the certification of the election, that was going to happen.
Dolan and Harrelson entered the Capitol together, he testified, around the same time as the Oath Keepers “stack” formation. A video was played by prosecutors showing Harrelson and Dolan chanting “treason” as they walked into the Rotunda.
He continued, “I wanted them to hear and feel the same things I was feeling at the time. It felt like I have been betrayed. I wanted them to hear and feel the anger, the frustration, the rage that I felt. They were betraying – what I saw at the time was that they were betraying our country.”
Stewart Rhodes and the Capitol in the Preath Keepers: The Confrontation of Two Former Senators in the Insurrection Act
The Oath Keepers would have a plan for if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, Rhodes said in one text, “but most of my focus will be on presuming he won’t. And preparing for the worst.”
It was at the end of December that Rhodes said we would have to rise up against Biden if the insurrection Act was not used to defeat the ChiCom coup. “Take your pick.”
SoRelle, who is a general counsel for the militia group, pleaded not guilty last month to several charges relating to the Capitol attack.
The government rested its case against Stewart Rhodes and four others in the seditious conspiracy trial.
More than two dozen witnesses, including FBI special agents, U.S. Capitol Police officers and two members of the group who entered the Capitol, testified before the jury.
Audio and video recordings and reams of Signal chats, along with Facebook messages and other communications the defendants sent, as well as videos and audio recordings that show what the defendants were saying and doing in the lead-up to the trial, were shown to the jury.
Watkins, Meggs and Harrelson donned tactical gear and forced their way up the Capitol steps that day and into the building. Rhodes and Caldwell were on Capitol grounds, but did not enter the complex.
Jason Alpers and the Oath Keeper During the Capitol Attack: When President Biden and Senator K”amala walked away
Prosecutors say the conspiracy didn’t end on Jan. 6, but instead continued through Biden’s inauguration. Critical evidence was introduced by one of the last witnesses.
Prosecutors called Jason Alpers, a military veteran who now does software development in Texas, testified Wednesday that a few days after the Capitol attack he met Rhodes and a few other Oath Keepers in the parking lot of an electronics store in the Dallas area.
In the meeting, Alpers said that Rhodes urged Trump to use the Insurrection Act to stay in power, as he typed out a message on his cellphone.
If you do not, then Biden/Kamala is going to turn your power on you and your family. A message was shown to the jury that said, “You and your family will be imprisoned and killed.” “And us veterans will die in combat on US soil, fighting against traitors who YOU turned over all the powers of the Presidency to.”
Rhodes wants Trump to be the leader of the republic, not a man who surrendered it to enemies and killed millions of Americans.
clips of the recording made by Alpers were played by prosecutors. In one snippet, Rhodes can be heard saying: “If he’s not going to do the right thing, and he’s just gonna let himself be removed illegally, then we should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it before it became a problem. I’d hang f** Pelosi from the lamppost.”
“If you want Civil war to be on American ground, you’re going to lose your family members in the streets where you live,” Alpers said. At that time, I pondered whether pushing this to President Trump would be in the best interests of the country.
Under questioning, FBI agents testified that in the thousands of text messages the defendants sent they did not find any concrete plan — or order — to storm the Capitol. Two Oath Keeper witnesses who were cooperating said there was no plan to stop Congress on Jan. 6 but that they had an idea about how to stop it.
The jury was packed for Rhodes and Linder: the insurrection act, antifa, the White House and the Bill of Rights
The courtroom was packed during his testimony, and Rhodes choked up several times discussing his family, suicide rates among veterans and other subjects highlighted by his lawyer, Phillip Linder. He appeared very comfortable on the stand, and spoke directly to the jury.
The election was invalid because Rhodes believed it to be unconstitutional. You can not have a winner of an unconstitutional election.
They had to discuss the issues that are important, such as the constitution, before trying to figure out whether there is voter fraud on the ground.
Rhodes told the jury Friday how he was honorably discharged from the military and went on to study law at Yale, focusing his attention on the Bill of Rights – which Rhodes called “the crown jewel of our Constitution” – and protecting civilian rights in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
“Frankly we kind of embarrassed the police, Rhodes testified, “because we showed them how to do it right, protecting the business owners while still respecting the rights of the protesters.”
Rhodes told the jury that the Oath Keepers attended to a situation where theQRF’s could be set up to respond in case of an emergency and that it wasn’t the case.
In November, he said that he was concerned that it might happen and that he had said that there was going to be a fight.
If Antifa did try to attack the White House, Rhodes said that “President Trump could use the Insurrection Act, declare this an insurrection, and use myself and other veterans to protect the White House.”