By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The founding father of the Oath Keepers extremist group and 4 associates deliberate for an “armed rebellion” to cease the switch of presidential energy on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors informed jurors Monday on the opening of probably the most critical case to achieve trial but within the assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler delivered his opening assertion in Washington’s federal courtroom within the trial of Stewart Rhodes and others charged with seditious conspiracy. They are accused of a weekslong plot to cease the switch of energy from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden.
“Their goal was to stop by whatever means necessary the lawful transfer of presidential power, including by taking up arms against the United States government,” he stated. “They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”
The Oath Keepers deliberate their conspiracy “in plain sight,” Nestler stated, noting open letters Rhodes printed on the group’s web site. They additionally used encrypted apps, like Signal, to message in secret and generally met in individual, he stated.
“They did not go to the Capitol to defend or help; they went to attack,” he stated.
An lawyer for Rhodes, although, argued that prosecutors constructed their case on cherry-picked proof like messages and movies and Oath Keepers weren’t concerned with violence through the riot.
“The story the government is trying to tell you today is completely wrong,” stated Rhodes’s lawyer, Phillip Linder. “Even though it may look inflammatory, they did nothing illegal.”
The stakes are excessive for the Justice Department, which final secured a seditious conspiracy conviction at trial almost 30 years in the past.
About 900 individuals have been charged and a whole lot convicted within the Capitol assault. Rioters stormed previous police obstacles, engaged in hand-to-hand fight with officers, smashed home windows and briefly halted the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
But the Oath Keepers are the primary to face trial on seditious conspiracy, a uncommon Civil War-era cost that carries as much as 20 years behind bars. The trial is anticipated to final a number of weeks.
Prosecutors informed jurors that the rebel for the antigovernment group was not a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage however a part of a drawn-out plot to cease Biden from getting into the White House.
On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, chief of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, one other Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia; and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group. They face a number of different expenses as nicely.
Prosecutors say Rhodes started plotting to overturn Biden’s victory simply days after the election.
He offered the group in November with a step-by-step plan based mostly on a well-liked rebellion that introduced down Yugoslavia’s president 20 years earlier, Nestler stated.
By December, authorities say, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.
Nestler learn a number of messages, saying they confirmed the group turning into turned more and more determined for motion because the date approached. On Christmas Day, Meggs wrote they must make senators very “uncomfortable.” Rhodes stated in a single message that Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.” When requested a couple of attainable civil warfare, Caldwell responded: “I’m starting it the night of the 6th, if necessary.”
The Oath Keepers organized coaching, together with one session that was recorded on video and set to rock music, and stashed “weapons of war” at a Virginia lodge so they might get them into the capital rapidly if obligatory, prosecutors stated.
Jan. 6 movies and images have been proven in courtroom of Oath Keepers wearing helmets, protecting vests and different army gear marching towards the Capitol and pushing into the constructing.
When Watkins declared on the walkie-talkie app Zello that they have been within the constructing, somebody responded: “Get it, Jess. … Everything we (expletive) trained for.”
The air was heavy with pepper spray and smoke as Watkins tried to push towards the Senate chamber, Nestler stated. “Simply entering the building was not enough,” he stated. They “needed to do more, they needed to actually get to the senators.”
Some Oath Keepers went towards the House of Representatives to search for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi however couldn’t discover her, prosecutors allege.
Rhodes remained exterior, “like a general surveying his troops on a battlefield,” Nestler stated.
After the assault, the Oath Keepers have been “elated,” the prosecutor stated. “They were boastful, they were proud. They were prepared to continue their efforts, even escalating their use of force, to accomplish their goal.”
In the times between the riot and Biden’s inauguration, Rhodes spent greater than $17,000 on firearm components, ammunition and different gadgets, prosecutors say. Around the time of the inauguration, Rhodes informed others to arrange native militias to oppose the Democratic administration, authorities say.
“Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming,” Rhodes wrote in a message the night of Jan. 6.
But that bravado rapidly turned to fret because the Oath Keepers realized how a lot bother they might be in, Neslter stated.
Rhodes sped out of a restaurant whereas having dinner that night and drove by way of the evening again to Texas when he bought phrase that police have been searching for individuals concerned within the riot, he stated. He urged the Oath Keepers to not discuss what occurred on the Capitol, saying in a single message: “Let me put it in infantry speak: SHUT THE (EXPLETIVE) UP!”
Defense attorneys have stated the Oath Keepers got here to Washington solely to offer safety at occasions for figures equivalent to Trump ally Roger Stone earlier than the president’s large out of doors rally behind the White House. Rhodes has stated there was no plan to assault the Capitol and that the members who did acted on their very own.
Defense legal professionals are poised to argue that jurors can not discover him responsible of seditious conspiracy as a result of all of the actions he took earlier than Jan. 6 have been in preparation for orders he anticipated from Trump — orders that by no means got here.
Rhodes’ lawyer has stated that his shopper will ultimately take the stand to argue that he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act and name up a militia, which Rhodes had been calling on him to do to cease Biden from turning into president. He was merely lobbying the president to make use of a U.S. regulation.
“They’re not a violent group,” Linder stated throughout a gap assertion that was far shorter than the prosecutor’s remarks. “Rhodes is extremely patriotic … he loves this country.”
Nestler took intention on the Insurrection Act declare, saying it was solely an try and cowl up Rhodes’ unlawful scheme. “Rhodes, with a law degree was careful with his own words. Rather than say out loud their plan, they used a code – or shorthand – the Insurrection Act,” he stated.
In one message from December 2020, Rhodes wrote that Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.”
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For full protection of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
Source: www.bostonherald.com”