January 6 sedition trial of Oath Keepers founder goes to jury

WASHINGTON — As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol ready to smash windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes hailed them as patriots and commemorated the battle that started the American Revolutionary War.

“Next is our Lexington,” Rhodes said in a Jan. 6, 2021 message to his far-right colleagues. “It’s coming.”

The jury will begin weighing his words and actions Tuesday, after nearly two months of testimony and debate in the criminal trial of Rhodes and four co-defendants. The final defense arguments were completed late Monday.

The jury will weigh allegations that the Oath Keepers were not whipped into an impulsive frenzy by Trump on Jan. 6, but came to Washington with intent to stop the presidential transfer of power at all costs.

The riot was the occasion they were preparing for, prosecutors say. Rhodes’ supporters sprung into action, marching to the Capitol, joining the crowd thronging into the building and attempting to overturn the election that sent Joe Biden to the White House in place of Trump, authorities claim.

Not true, argue the Oath Keepers. They say there was never a conspiracy, prosecutors twisted their admittedly bombastic words, and gave the jury a misleading timeline of events and messages.

Hundreds of people were convicted in the attack, which left dozens of officials injured, lawmakers ran for their lives and shook the foundations of American democracy. Now, for the first time, jurors in the case against Rhodes and four allies will decide whether the actions of a January 6 defendant constitute seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought charge that carries both substantial prison terms and political weight.

The jury’s verdict may well address the misconception that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, shortly after the 2022 interim results in which voters rejected Trump’s select Republican candidates who supported his baseless allegations of cheating. The outcome could also shape the future of the Justice Department’s massive and costly prosecution of the insurgency, which some conservatives have attempted to portray as politically motivated.

The failure of a seditious conspiracy conviction could spell trouble for another high-profile trial beginning next month against former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of that extremist group. The Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation has also expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election.

In the Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors built their case using dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to January 6th. They show Rhodes rallying his supporters to fight in Trump’s defense and warned they may have to “rise up in a riot.”

“We can’t get through this without a civil war. Prepare your mind, body and spirit,” he wrote shortly after the 2020 election.

Three defendants, including Rhodes, took the stand to testify in their defense – a move generally viewed by defense attorneys as a last resort as it tends to do more harm than good. On the witness stand, Rhodes of Granbury, Texas, and his associates — Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia, and Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio — tried to downplay their actions but struggled when pressed by prosecutors to explain their violent messages .

The other defendants are Kelly Meggs of Dunnellon, Fla. and Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Fla. Seditious conspiracy carries up to 20 years in prison and all five defendants also face other felony charges. They would be the first people to be convicted in court of seditious conspiracy since 1995, when Islamist militants plotted to bomb New York City landmarks were prosecuted.

The trial in Washington’s federal courthouse – less than a mile from the Capitol – has provided a glimpse into how Rhodes mobilized his group and later attempted to reach Trump.

But while authorities combed through thousands of messages sent by Rhodes and his co-defendants, none formulated a plan to attack the Capitol itself. Defense attorneys emphasized this fact throughout the trial, arguing that Oath Keepers entering the Capitol were caught up in a spontaneous outburst of electoral frenzy rather than being part of a conspiracy.

The jury never heard from three other Oath Keepers who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

For two days on the witness stand, a seemingly relaxed Rhodes told the jury there was no plan to attack the Capitol. He said he had nothing to do with the weapons that some Oath Keepers stashed at a Virginia hotel that prosecutors say served as a base for “rapid reaction force” teams who were ready if needed to ferry an arsenal of weapons across the Potomac River. The guns were never used.

Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper, said his followers were “stupid” for going in. Rhodes, who was in a hotel room when he found rioters storming the Capitol, insisted the Oath Keepers’ only job that day was to protect Trump’s ally Roger Stone and other figures during events leading up to the riot.

That message was echoed in court by others, including a man dubbed the Oath Keepers “operations officer” on January 6, who told jurors he had never heard anyone discuss plans to attack the Capitol.

A government witness — an Oath Keeper who is working with prosecutors in hopes of a lighter sentence — testified that there was an “implicit” agreement to stop Congressional certification, but the decision to enter the building was “spontaneous”.

“We discussed doing something about voter fraud before we went there on the 6th,” Graydon Young told jurors. “And then, as the crowd got over the barricade and they went into the building, there was an opportunity to do something. We didn’t tell each other that.”

Prosecutors say the defense is just trying to muddy the waters in a clear-cut case. The Oath Keepers are not accused of reaching an agreement to storm the Capitol before Jan. 6.

Defense attorneys for Caldwell, Watkins and Harrelson worked Monday to cast doubt on the timeline presented by prosecutors, saying communications were hampered by congested cell towers and that other rioters forced Congress to pause before they arrived.

But prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said any delay was brief and the Oath Keepers were among the rioters who disrupted congressional proceedings by preventing lawmakers from getting back into session to confirm the presidential election.

Citing the Civil War-era Insurgent Conspiracies Act, prosecutors sought to prove that the Oath Keepers conspired to violently defy federal authority and block the execution of laws restricting the transfer of power to the United States govern presidents. Prosecutors must show that the defendants consented to the use of force — and not just advocated it — to oppose the presidential transfer of power.

After the riot, Rhodes tried to get a message through an intermediary to Trump imploring the president not to give up his fight to stay in power. The mediator — a man who told the jury he had an indirect way to reach the president — recorded his meeting with Rhodes and went to the FBI instead.

Rhodes told the man, speaking of Trump, “If he’s not going to do the right thing and just let himself be illegally removed, then we should have brought guns.” He said, “We should have fixed it right there on the spot. I would (expletive) put Pelosi on the lamppost,” Rhodes said, referring to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Richer reported from Boston.