- Jessica Watkins: Oath Keepers member and Army veteran sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for January 6 CNN
- Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for role in Jan. 6 insurrection: What we know Yahoo News
- Oath Keepers founder sentenced for Jan. 6, ‘The Little Mermaid’ returns; 5 Things podcast USA TODAY
- Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keeper sentenced to prison, wanted Sen. John McCain hanged The Arizona Republic
- Oath Keepers defendant Jessica Watkins sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison for role in Jan. 6 attack CBS News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Keepers
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years in prison on Jan. 6 charges – CBS News
- Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years in prison on Jan. 6 charges CBS News
- BREAKING: Oath Keepers founder sentenced to 18 years in prison for Jan. 6 attack MSNBC
- 5 PM ET: Oath Keepers leader sentenced, GOP debt ceiling demands, Petito family lawsuit & more – CNN 5 Things – Podcast on CNN Audio CNN
- Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack WGN News
- Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for role in Jan. 6 insurrection: What we know Yahoo News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Oath Keepers: Second seditious conspiracy trial against Oath Keepers begins with opening statements
Washington
CNN
—
Prosecutors on Monday presented opening arguments in a second trial against members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group accused of joining a monthslong plot to keep Joe Biden out of the White House, as the defense opened its own case saying the men have been “overcharged” and had no real plan.
The Justice Department prosecuted the first Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy case earlier this fall with mixed success – two leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, were convicted of the charge while three others were acquitted. The two convictions vindicated, at least in part, how the department is prosecuting high-profile cases related to the US Capitol riot.
But in this case, brought against Oath Keepers Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo, federal prosecutors will likely have to adjust their arguments to explain how the four men, none of whom are alleged to be leaders of the militia, helped to orchestrate the violent plot.
That adjustment was on full display Monday, as prosecutor Troy Edwards delivered his opening argument to the jury. While prosecutors focused on lofty constitutional arguments, the Insurrection Act and the Electoral College vote in the first trial, Edwards instead emphasized that these defendants were focused on using “brute force” to keep Trump in power.
“In the defendant’s words, they were at war,” Edwards said. “These defendants agreed to and joined together to stop the transfer of power, and they were ready to do it by force. And on January 6, 2021, they did.”
The four defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
Edwards said that the four defendants took their cues from Rhodes, who was convicted earlier this month for his role in the alleged plot.
Prosecutors struggled at times during the first trial to explain whether Rhodes directly ordered his militia to enter the Capitol building. On Monday, Edwards pointed to a message from Rhodes telling his followers that America’s founding fathers “stormed the governor’s mansion in MA… They didn’t fire on them, but they street fought. That’s where we are now.”
“Recall that Rhodes had consistently told his troops to be ready, to be ready to act to stop the transfer of power. They were. Rhodes told them it was now time to take their place in history,” Edwards said. “They acted. Everything crystallized. They did what was necessary to stop that process.”
Edwards also worked to undercut any suggestion that the Oath Keepers were only present at the Capitol to hear Trump speak and to provide security for so-called VIPs – an argument that defense lawyers in the first trial used to argue that there was no premeditated conspiracy to storm the Capitol or stop the transfer of power.
The defendants “had a few other reasons to be at the Capitol than fighting the transfer of power. And we know this is normal because humans are complicated,” Edwards said.
When the Oath Keepers heard that the Capitol had been breached, Edwards said they hustled toward the chaos. “They abandoned anything they were doing that day and they activated their agreement to take matters into their own hands,” he said.
“A defendant’s unlawful action is not excused just because they talked about other things for a few months. A defendant is not off the hook just because they were there for more than one reason,” he added.
Edwards also preemptively struck at defense arguments that the Oath Keepers went into the Capitol to help law enforcement, telling the jury officers would testify that “none of these defendants helped them, they only presented a danger.”
Minuta, Moerschel, Hackett and Vallejo “perverted the Constitutional order” and “were willing to use force to push their view of the Constitution, their view of America on the country,” Edwards said, telling the jury that each defendant, at the end of the trail, should be found guilty of several charges, including seditious conspiracy.
Defense lawyers for the four defendants said in their opening statements that their clients were being “overcharged” and that the militia did not have an explicit plan to storm the US Capitol. They painted the defendants as victims of the militia’s persuasive leader.
“There were no instructions, there was no plan,” Angela Halim, an attorney for Hackett, told the jury. “There was no unity of purpose.”
Halim said that prosecutors had an “understandable need to hold people accountable,” but had “tunnel vision” in the case of the Oath Keepers and “cherry-picked pieces plucked from here and there that supported their narrative.”
“Do not let them do that. Do not let them tell a story that is incomplete,” Halim said.
Vallejo’s defense attorney, Matthew Peed, also told the 12 jurors and four alternates that prosecutors “may have someone who did something wrong, but they are overcharging them,” and that it is the jury’s job to decide whether investigators “got it right.”
Several of the defense attorneys said their clients had been swept up in the events of 2020, including the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the racial justice protests that dominated the summer.
In Florida, Hackett was “subject to messaging that encouraged him and his community to be afraid. It wasn’t always clear what the precise threat was, but the message was always to be afraid,” Halim said.
Defense attorney Scott Weinberg said that his client, Moerschel, had a “steady diet from outlets like Newsmax and Fox News” that “tell you to be afraid.”
The defendants also were swayed by the passionate political tirades of Rhodes, some defense attorneys told the jury. Weinberg referred to Rhodes as a “right-wing televangelist” and a “faulty leader” who lives off member dues from Oath Keepers but was ultimately “incompetent” and could not have organized a conspiracy to stop the transfer of power.
Ultimately, Weinberg told jurors, they will see that prosecutors “overpromised and underdelivered” in their accusations against the Oath Keepers, which he described as people who were “out of shape, overweight, elderly, and really just wanted to play military.”
“I think Drake said it best,” Weinberg said, referencing the rapper: “These gentlemen had Twitter fingers, not trigger fingers.”
This story has been updated with additional developments Monday.
Garland praises Oath Keepers verdict, won’t say where Jan. 6 probe goes
Throughout the trial, prosecutors highlighted the defendants’ links to key allies of President Donald Trump, such as Roger Stone, “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
But Garland declined to say Wednesday if he expected prosecutors to eventually file charges against them or any other people who did not physically participate in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I don’t want to speculate on other investigations or parts of other investigations,” Garland told reporters at a briefing where he also touted Justice Department efforts to establish federal oversight of the water supply system in Jackson, Miss.
Garland called the sprawling Jan. 6 investigation, and Jackson’s water crisis, “significant matters of public interest.”
“I’m very proud of the attorneys, investigators and staff whose unwavering commitment to rule of law and tireless work resulted in yesterday in these two significant victories,” he said.
Tuesday’s verdicts upheld a key Justice Department argument laid out in the seven-week-long trial: that the breach of the Capitol was not an isolated event, but rather a culmination or component of wider plotting by extremists who wanted to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. In this case, the jury found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a top deputy, Kelly Meggs, at least partially responsible for staging firearms and preparing to forcibly oppose federal authority. Both were convicted of “seditious conspiracy,” a rarely used charge that is among the most serious levied so far in the sprawling Jan. 6 investigation.
Justice Department officials had been eyeing the Oath Keepers verdict to help decide whether to file criminal charges against other high-profile, pro-Trump figures who had roles in the buildup to the violence, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.
The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said prosecutors will also consider the outcome of an upcoming trial involving members of another extremist group, the Proud Boys, scheduled to start in mid-December.
At the briefing with reporters Tuesday, Garland also said that he has asked the House Jan. 6 committee — which has been pursuing a separate investigation into the attack — for all interview transcripts and evidence that it has collected. That’s long been a point of tension between the Justice Department and Congress, with the committee yet to hand over all the materials.
“We would like to have all the transcripts and all the other evidence collected by the committee so that we can use it in the ordinary course of our investigation,” Garland said.
After Trump announced in mid-November that he would run for president in 2024, Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee investigations related to Trump and his advisers after he lost the 2020 election, as well as a separate investigation of Trump’s possession of classified documents after he left the White House.
Defined in the law as an effort by two or more people to “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States,” or to forcibly oppose its authority or laws, seditious conspiracy is rarely charged. Prosecutors often view it as difficult to prove at trial, particularly when other, simpler crimes can be charged for the same conduct.
Praveen Fernandes, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center — a liberal think tank and law firm that had been closely tracking the Rhodes trial — said the guilty verdict is significant.
“It’s not just a delivery of justice in respect to Rhodes and Kelly Meggs — but it is a sign that a jury was able to understand what happened that day as seditious conspiracy,” Fernandes said. “It at least opens up a universe that says it is at least possible to secure such a conviction on acts that led up to Jan. 6.”
But legal experts also warned that the verdict wasn’t a slam-dunk for the government, highlighting how difficult seditious conspiracy cases are to pursue. Three other Oath Keeper associates who were on trial were acquitted on the sedition charges. All five defendants were found guilty of obstructing Congress as members met on Jan. 6 to confirm the results of the 2020 election, a key step in the country’s peaceful transfer of power.
In deciding the seditious conspiracy charge, jurors appeared to focus on written or recorded evidence of conspiratorial intent, a warning sign for prosecutors that the threshold to convict people on this rare charge is high.
Rhodes attorney James Lee Bright said he expects the Justice Department nevertheless to take the mixed verdict as a sign to move “full-steam ahead” with prosecutions against others allegedly involved in the planning of what unfolded on Jan. 6.
The federal prosecutors at Rhodes’ trial made clear that Stone, a long-serving political adviser to Trump who has consistently denied any knowledge of or involvement in illegal acts at the Capitol on Jan. 6, was a focus of inquiry, introducing evidence they said the government obtained from his phone in December 2021.
On the day that television networks declared Biden had won the election, prosecutors alleged, Rhodes shared a text with Stone, Alexander and Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and others asking: “What’s the plan?”
They also alleged that Rhodes shared a plan with that same “Friends of Stone” encrypted chat group that included bullet points from an anti-government uprising in Serbia that included storming its parliament.
Rhodes also wrote public letters to Trump, urging him to invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military and private militia to ensure he remained in power.
But attorneys for people who worked for Trump, and other Oath Keepers members, expressed skepticism that Trump received or acted on those messages.
“Of the 10 terabytes of evidence that we’ve had available to us in this trial, I can tell you that there is nothing in the body of evidence that we’ve been given or shown that would in any way be indicative of the ability to indict former president Trump for January 6th,” Bright, one of Rhodes’ attorneys, told reporters after Tuesday’s verdict.
On Wednesday, Garland said that the work of Justice Department attorneys in securing the guilty verdicts “makes clear the department will work tirelessly to hold account those responsible for crimes related to attacks on our democracy on Jan 2021.”
Tom Jackman contributed to this report.
Defendants attack U.S. ‘manipulation’ of evidence in Oath Keepers trial
“Make no mistake, he [Rhodes] wanted to start a civil war,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Nestler said. “They wanted to attack what they saw as an illegitimate government. Their own statements prove the government’s case.”
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta submitted the case to the jury after eight weeks of trial, 46 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits. The jury is set to begin deliberations at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, take off the rest of Thanksgiving week if no verdict is reached, and resume deliberations next week.
Defense attorney Bradford Geyer cast client Kenneth Harrelson as a follower, not a leader on Jan. 6. The jury did not see Harrelson’s communications — not because he deleted them, as prosecutors alleged, but because he didn’t participate in planning, Geyer argued.
“This is no longer about scary words,” Geyer said, “which is bad enough. Now you’re asked to convict based on what he might have been thinking.”
He said Harrelson was apolitical, only agreed to travel to D.C. on Jan. 4, 2021, and never had any intention of entering the Capitol, though he did so as part of a stack of Oath Keepers on the east side of the building.
Geyer and Jonathan Crisp, the attorney for defendant Jessica Watkins, criticized how prosecutors presented videos and evidence, calling it “government manipulation or deception.” He noted that prosecutors showed group chat discussions on the Signal app, used by Rhodes and many other members before and during Jan. 6, but omitted certain posts and wrongly implied Watkins responded to messages she did not answer.
Watkins admitted on the stand that she went into the Capitol, and apologized for it.
Crisp noted that prosecutors never asked Watkins, during her testimony, if there was “a plan to stop the certification. A plan to overthrow the government. … She was never asked about that.”
He said prosecutors “will put anything in front of you, to lie and twist it. If they will go to this extreme for their narrative, for their context, they are entitled to no credibility.”
Crisp and David Fischer, attorney for Virginia resident Thomas Caldwell, both said their clients believed that by 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, when members of Congress were evacuated, that the confirmation had been completed. Therefore, Watkins and Caldwell had no intention of disrupting the electoral college count.
“Can you stop something that’s already stopped?” Crisp asked. “How do you kill a dead body?” But the electoral college count had only been postponed, and was restarted about six hours later.
Nestler responded that Congress wasn’t dead. He argued that Watkins and Caldwell were communicating with people outside the city and knew the count hadn’t been completed.
Fischer noted that Caldwell had no communication with Rhodes after mid-November. Fischer also said the government initially accused Caldwell of being an Oath Keepers leader who went into the Capitol, allegations that prosecutors later rescinded. Caldwell wasn’t found on any of the Oath Keepers’ Signal chats or phone meetings, and only communicated with a North Carolina Oath Keepers group that had split off from Rhodes, Fischer said.
Caldwell is accused of coordinating a “Quick Reaction Force” with an arsenal of guns based at an Arlington hotel, but “why would the Oath Keepers have a non-Oath Keeper coordinate the QRF?” Fischer asked. “Mr. Caldwell had no contact with Stewart Rhodes. He had no contact with Oath Keepers on Jan. 6. None. He’s the coordinator of the QRF? How’s that work?”
Oath Keepers Sought ‘Violent Overthrow’ Of U.S. Government: Federal Prosecutor
WASHINGTON (AP) — For weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates discussed using violence to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and when rioters started storming the Capitol they saw an opportunity to do it, a federal prosecutor told jurors Friday as the seditious conspiracy case wound toward a close.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy said in her closing argument to jurors after nearly two months of testimony in the high-stakes case that Rhodes’ own words show he was preparing to lead a rebellion to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House. Rhodes and his co-defendants repeatedly called for “violent overthrow” of the U.S. government and sprang into action on Jan. 6, she said.
“Our democracy is fragile. It cannot exist without respect for the rule of law, and it will not survive if people dissatisfied with the results of an election can use force and violence to change the outcome,” Rakoczy said.
The closing arguments began in Washington federal court after the final pieces of evidence were presented in the trial alleging Rhodes and his band of antigovernment extremists plotted for weeks to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power from Republican Donald Trump to Biden.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday, after closing statements from the defense conclude.
Rhodes’ attorney sought to downplay his violent rhetoric in the run-up to Jan. 6, describing it as “venting” and insisting there was no agreement or conspiracy. Defense attorney James Lee Bright said Rhodes’ language was focused on persuading Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act over what he saw as a stolen election.
Rhodes “wasn’t hiding his opinions, he wasn’t hiding any plans,” Bright told jurors. He was “as open as daylight with every plan on what he was asking President Trump to do.”
Evidence presented by prosecutors shows Rhodes and his co-defendants discussing the prospect of violence and the need to keep Biden out of the White House in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, before stashing a cache of weapons referred to as a “quick reaction force” at a Virginia hotel across the Potomac River.
On Jan. 6, Oath Keepers wearing helmets and other battle gear were seen pushing through the pro-Trump mob and into the Capitol. Rhodes remained outside, like “a general surveying his troops on a battlefield,” a prosecutor told jurors. After the attack, prosecutors say, Rhodes and other Oath Keepers celebrated with dinner at a local restaurant.
Defense attorneys have spent weeks hammering prosecutors’ relative lack of evidence that the Oath Keepers had an explicit plan to attack the Capitol. Rhodes, who is from Texas, testified that he and his followers were only in Washington to provide security for right-wing figures including Roger Stone. Those Oath Keepers who did enter the Capitol went rogue and were “stupid,” he said.
Rhodes testified that the mountain of writings and text messages showing him rallying his band of extremists to prepare for violence and discussing the prospect of a “bloody” civil war ahead of Jan. 6 was only bombastic talk.
The prosecutor sought to rebut suggestions that Rhodes’ rhetoric was simply bluster, urging jurors not to become “numb” to messages weren’t just “ranting and raving” but instead “deadly serious.”
“The way they have appointed themselves to be above the law is why they are here today,” she said. “The sense of entitlement that led to frustration followed by rage and then violence – that is the story of this conspiracy.”
Rhodes’ lawyer said his client was back at a hotel room eating chicken wings and watching TV when the first rioters started storming the Capitol. He noted that the Oath Keepers never deployed their “quick reaction force” arsenal.
“You’re either the Keystone Cops of insurrectionists, or there is no insurrection,” he told jurors, referring to the inept police officers of silent movies.
Two other defendants testified in the case. Jessica Watkins, of Woodstock, Ohio, echoed that her actions that day were “really stupid” but maintained she was not part of a plan and was “swept along” with the mob, which she likened to a crowd gathered at a store for a sale on the popular shopping day known as Black Friday.
Defendant Thomas Caldwell, a Navy veteran from Virginia, downplayed a chilling piece of evidence: messages he sent trying to get a boat to ferry weapons from Virginia across the Potomac into Washington. He testified that he was never serious about his queries, though he struggled to explain other messages referencing violence on Jan. 6.
Two other defendants, Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson, both from Florida, did not testify. Meggs’ attorney, Stanley Woodward, argued that there were thousands of people involved, and his client was not among the first people to enter the Capitol. Attorneys for the other defendants are expected to making closing arguments Monday.
The group is the first among hundreds of people arrested in the deadly Capitol riot to stand trial on seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge that calls for up to 20 years behind bars upon conviction. The stakes are high for the Justice Department, which last secured such a conviction at trial nearly 30 years ago and intends to try two more groups on the charge later this year.
Related…
Prosecutors use Oath Keepers leader’s own words against him in heated cross-examination
CNN
—
In a tense, head-to-head exchange with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, prosecutors used Rhodes’ own words from texts, speeches and interviews to suggest to the jury that the militia leader misled them when he testified he was unaware of other members’ activities on January 6, 2021, and was appalled by the violence that day.
Rhodes is the first of the five defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, to testify.
In his two-day testimony, Rhodes told the jury that he wasn’t involved in the specifics of planning for January 6, and that he had no knowledge of plans for the so-called quick reaction force that the group set up in Virginia to quickly move weapons into Washington, as prosecutors have alleged.
Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy, however, showed the jury Signal messages in which Rhodes told other members that “We WILL have a QRF” on January 6 because “this situation calls for it” and was part of group messages where members shared photographs of routes the QRF could use to enter the city.
“The buck stopped with you in this operation,” Rakoczy said to Rhodes, reading the leader’s messages aloud.
“I’m responsible for everything everyone else did?” Rhodes responded.
“You’re in charge, right?” Rakoczy said.
“Not if they do something off mission,” he shot back.
“That’s convenient,” Rakoczy said, smiling.
The militia leader also told prosecutors that he “hoped to avoid” conflict and was only concerned about a civil war breaking out after Joe Biden became president – leading to a chiding question from Rakoczy about how “the civil war will be on [January] 21st and not on the sixth?”
“I don’t condone the violence that happened” on January 6, Rhodes testified. “Anyone who did assault a police officer that day should be prosecuted for it.”
Rakoczy pointed to statements Rhodes made in a secretly recorded conversation in the days after January 6 where he said he wished the 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 removed illegally, then we should have brought rifles,” Rhodes said in the recording prosecutors again played for the jury.
“We could have fixed it right then and there,” Rhodes said of the Capitol attack, according to the recording. “I’d hang f**king Pelosi from the lamppost.”
After playing the recording, Rakoczy asked Rhodes, “That’s what you said four days after the assault at the Capitol, right?”
“Yeah, after a couple drinks and I was pissed off,” Rhodes testified.
Rhodes and the other four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the seditious conspiracy charges.
Stewart Rhodes: Oath Keepers leader testifies 2020 election was ‘unconstitutional,’ paints himself as anti-violence
CNN
—
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers who prosecutors say called for a “bloody revolution” to keep then-President Donald Trump in power, painted himself as an anti-racist Libertarian who believed the 2020 election was unconstitutional as he testified in his own defense on Friday.
Rhodes is the first of the five defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, to testify.
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 spoke directly to the jury and appeared very comfortable on the stand.
Rhodes explained to the jury that he didn’t believe either Trump or Joe Biden won in 2020 because the election itself was “unconstitutional.”
“I believe the election was unconstitutional, and that made it invalid,” Rhodes testified. “You really can’t have a winner of an unconstitutional election.”
Rhodes told the jury that, as he saw it, election laws in several states were changed by “executive fiat” and not through the state legislature.
“In multiple states especially in the swing states … you had them putting in new rules in direct violation” of state laws, Rhodes said.
“Everyone kept focusing on the computers” and other theories of voter fraud, Rhodes said, instead of the constitutional issues, which they needed to discuss before figuring out “whether there’s fraud on the ground.”
Rhodes did not detail any specific laws that were changed. CNN has found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Prosecutors have alleged that Rhodes wanted Trump to remain in power and that the militia leader supported a “bloody revolution” to secure the presidency.
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.
Rhodes, a self-described Libertarian, testified that he founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 to “reach, change and inspire” people about what rights the Constitution afforded them.
Pushing back on what he saw as narratives that the Oath Keepers were racist or white nationalists, Rhodes said the organization traveled to various cities for racial justice protests, claiming the group protected “minority business owners” in Ferguson, Missouri.
“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.”
Oath Keepers rules, Rhodes claimed, specifically bar any member who “advocates for the overthrow of the United States.”
During the first several weeks of the seditious conspiracy trial against the far-right organization, prosecutors presented evidence that the Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons at a hotel in Virginia on January 6 as part of a so-called quick reaction force. Prosecutors alleged that the five defendants intended to use those weapons in case called upon by Trump to stop the transfer of power to Biden.
Rhodes told the jury that wasn’t the case and claimed that the QRF’s were set up at an event the Oath Keepers attended to “respond in case there is an emergency,” including if his men were ever injured.
The Oath Keepers also used QRFs every time they provided security, Rhodes said, including several events in Washington, DC. After the election, Rhodes testified he was concerned Antifa would “attack the White House,” and claimed the leftist organization was threatening to “drag Trump out” if the president refused to concede.
In November, “I was concerned that this might actually happen,” Rhodes told the jury, citing his rhetoric on a recorded meeting prosecutors showed the jury in which Rhodes allegedly said that “there’s 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.”
No such attack at the White House occurred.
Rhodes is expected to continue his testimony on Monday.
Oath Keepers trial witness: Stewart Rhodes urged Trump to stay in power by force
Rhodes made the violent comments at a meeting in Texas with Jason Alpers, who described himself on the witness stand as a military veteran and co-founder of Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG). That organization played a key role in spreading false claims about the 2020 election through misleading and inaccurate reports about voting machine software.
On the stand, Alpers said he had an “indirect” line to Trump’s “inner circle,” without elaborating.
That apparent relationship is why Rhodes wanted to meet, Alpers testified. He said he recorded the meeting to accurately “provide information to President Trump.” What he got, he said, disturbed him enough to eventually go to the FBI.
Alpers took the stand in the sixth week of trial for Rhodes and four others accused of taking part in a seditious conspiracy against the U.S. government. He was one of the last witnesses put on by prosecutors seeking to prove the Oath Keepers’ actions on Jan. 6 were just one part of an attempt to prevent by any means necessary the lawful transition of presidential power.
He was followed by an FBI agent who displayed firearms, knives and tactical gear Rhodes purchased after Jan. 6 — over $17,000 worth, according to the testimony — and read messages in which the former Army paratrooper urged his followers to prepare for civil war.
Rhodes was hiding out in Texas, according to prosecutors, when he met with Alpers in an electronics store parking lot. Also present were Joshua James, an Oath Keeper who has pleaded guilty, and Kellye SoRelle, an attorney linked romantically to Rhodes.
As he had publicly before Jan. 6, Rhodes repeatedly said Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act, which he believed would allow militia groups to block President Biden from taking office.
Rhodes told Alpers on the recording that if Trump gave up power “he and his family” would “wind up dead,” because Biden would “turn the Insurrection Act against us.” He compared the election to the overthrow of the czar of Russia in 1917, after which the entire royal family was slaughtered.
Alpers testified that Rhodes wrote a similar message for Trump: “You must use the Insurrection Act and use the power of the President to stop him. And all of us veterans will support you and so will the vast majority of the military.”
Rhodes has argued he was only advocating for what he believed would be a lawful order from the president. But on the recording, Rhodes indicated he and his followers would act violently even if Trump did not give his approval.
“Here is the thing, we’re gonna fight,” Rhodes is recorded saying. “We’re not gonna let them come get our brothers. We’re going to fight, the fight’s going to be ours.”
And if he had known on Jan. 6 that Trump would never invoke the Insurrection Act, Rhodes said, he would have gone further that day — including assassinating a Democratic leader.
“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,” Rhodes says on the recording. “We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang f——- Pelosi from the lamppost.”
Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is currently hospitalized after being attacked by a man who officials say was looking to kill her.
Rhodes in the recording, also called the riot “a good thing in the end,” because it “showed the people that we have a spirit of resistance.”
But he said if Trump left office, “everyone that was at the Capitol” would be in danger of being charged with “felony murder … because someone died.” SoRelle is heard agreeing: “I know it’s gonna happen.”
Felony murder applies when a death results from the commission of another felony crime.
On the recording, Alpers told Rhodes he did not think Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act. He testified that while the law was being talked about in “election fraud circles,” his impression was based on the discussion in Trump’s “inner circle.”
Emails released Wednesday from Trump attorney John Eastman indicate the subject was debated by those close to the president. On Dec. 19, 2020, Eastman told an unknown correspondent to “desist from this path,” because “it would lead to a constitutional crisis.”
Alpers said he did not deliver Rhodes’s words to Trump “because I didn’t agree with the message.” He also said he worried being associated with these “extremist ideologies” would hurt his “relationships and credibility.”
Alpers told The Washington Post last year that as far as he knew, ASOG began its “election fraud project” after he left the company.
On a podcast last year, a former ASOG employee named Josh Merritt said Alpers connected the group to Phil Waldron, who he served with Afghanistan. “Alpers was psychological operations. Waldron had involvement with psychological operations,” Merritt said.
Waldron, a retired colonel, went to the White House multiple times to share purported evidence of election fraud; worked directly with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani on legal challenges to the vote count and circulated a PowerPoint presentation before Jan. 6 arguing that Trump could use troops to seize ballots.
Waldron did not return a request for comment.
One ASOG report on software used in Antrim County, Mich., claimed to have found evidence of a sweeping conspiracy to fix votes. The report’s central claims were immediately debunked by independent experts and Homeland Security officials, but Trump claimed it was “absolute proof” of fraud that would keep him in office for a second term, former attorney general William P. Barr later told congressional investigators.
Alpers said he initially did nothing with the recording because he “didn’t want to get involved,” but that sometime in the spring of 2021 he met with federal law enforcement.
“Asking for civil war to be on American ground and understanding, being a person who’s gone to war, right, that means blood is gonna get shed on the streets where your family are,” he said. “It was at that point that I kind of step back and I’m really kind of questioning whether pushing this to President Trump is in the best interest.”
Four days after meeting Alpers, records show Rhodes told Oath Keepers leaders that “it is regretfully becoming clear that President Trump will not be taking the decisive action we urged him to take.” He urged the group to delete all communications related to Jan. 6 and “muster” against “an illegitimate regime.”
Texts read in court show other defendants reacting enthusiastically, discussing potential hideouts and weaponry to assemble.
Emma Brown and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.
Oath Keepers trial continues with video from inside the U.S. Capitol
The third week of the government’s case in the seditious conspiracy trial of Rhodes, Meggs and three other associates culminated in a minute-by-minute account of the Oath Keepers’ actions on Jan. 6 that prosecutors say shows how the group’s leaders plotted “rebellion” beforehand, greenlit violence while at the Capitol and appeared to coordinate their actions with other figures pushing to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Whitney Drew, a former FBI counterterrorism special agent with experience in Army intelligence, testified as prosecutors deployed audio, video and computers animations to give jurors an immersive path through the defendants’ actions that day.
Prosecutors mined material from Kellye SoRelle, described in court as both an Oath Keepers attorney and Rhodes’s girlfriend. SoRelle, who was recently charged with obstructing the vote count, started a four-minute long Facebook livestream at the east side of the Capitol at 2:12 p.m. just as a crowd began moving up the steps. Proud Boys simultaneously broke into the building on the west side, according to court records, and some moved to the east.
“This is what happens when the people are pissed and when they rise up,” SoRelle told followers in a video played for jurors. “That’s how you take your government back. You literally take it back.”
One minute after SoRelle’s video ended, a group of Oath Keepers led by Meggs arrived near where SoRelle was standing, Drew testified. Rhodes was also approaching, after telling an encrypted Oath Keepers leadership chat that it was Trump supporters, not leftist agitators, responsible for the action. He likened the crowd of “pissed off patriots” to “the Sons of Liberty,” American colonists who carried out the Boston Tea Party.
SoRelle had earlier pushed back on an Oath Keepers member who expressed concern about the mob breaking down barriers, saying she had a message from Rhodes: “We are acting like founding fathers, can’t stand down.”
At 2:28 p.m., Rhodes wrote, “Back door of the Capitol,” and sent it to an encrypted chat group that included Tarrio, Trump confidant Roger Stone, Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander and right-wing talk show host Alex Jones, according to prosecutors. Drew did not elaborate on that connection, but prosecutors have repeatedly highlighted Rhodes’s messages to the “Friends of Stone” chat group, which was also an interest of the House committee investigating Jan. 6. By the time Rhodes had sent that message, Proud Boys had already made their way from the west front of the Capitol to the east, both inside and outside the building, according to court records.
Minutes later, Rhodes messaged a group of Oath Keepers that people were “pounding on the doors,” according to texts shown in court. Then he called Meggs and Michael Greene, charged separately and described in court as the Oath Keepers’ Jan. 6 operations leader. The three spoke by conference call for just over a minute.
The contents of the 2:32 p.m. call were not available to investigators, but Drew testified that at that moment during the conversation Meggs began leading his Oath Keepers group in single-file “stack” formation up the stairs. The doors were forced open from the inside five minutes later, and the first member of the Oath Keepers entered with a massive crowd.
Inside the building, defendant Jessica Watkins of Ohio narrated their progress on a walkie-talkie style phone application.
“We are in the mezzanine. We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it,” she said, while others with her chimed in that they had taken over, according to the messages played in court.
“Were storming the Capitol,” Greene wrote to an unknown person at 3:06 p.m.
Drew also showed jurors new messages predating Jan. 6 involving Rhodes, SoRelle and other Oath Keepers in which Rhodes explicitly called for violence to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. Rhodes has argued those plans were only in preparation for the possibility that President Trump would deputize his group as a legal militia under the Insurrection Act. But in a Dec. 10 text message, Rhodes said that if Trump did not act, “we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion).”
Green and SoRelle have pleaded not guilty; Alexander, Jones and Stone are not charged with any crimes.
Rhodes’s defense attorney James Lee Bright argued that the defendants’ words were mere “rhetoric and bombast,” and that the government’s allegations of criminal intent were undercut by indications that the Oath Keepers were blundering around the Capitol grounds, confused and unable to connect by phone or in person. Some text messages were not received until hours later because of poor cell reception. Rhodes at one point inaccurately described himself as on the south side of the Capitol; one Oath Keeper lost track of his car.
“All these people from out of town had no clue where they are,” Bright said. “Kind of hard to give guidance to your troops when you don’t know where they are.”
Inside the Capitol, video played in court showed that the group of Oath Keepers on trial did not destroy property or assault officers, although jurors saw them pushing against riot police guarding the Senate chamber.
While “Quick Reaction Force” teams were waiting outside D.C. with firearms, Bright emphasized that they were “never called in” by Rhodes and established during cross-examination that the Oath Keepers were not charged with violating any firearms laws.
“So the armed rebellion was unarmed?” Bright asked FBI Special Agent Sylvia Hilgeman.
Hilgeman replied, “The armed rebellion wasn’t over.”