By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The founding father of the Oath Keepers extremist group and 4 associates deliberate an “armed rebellion” to maintain President Donald Trump in energy, a federal prosecutor contended Monday as essentially the most severe case but went to trial within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Stewart Rhodes and his band of extremists have been ready to go to warfare to cease Joe Biden from turning into president, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler advised jurors. The group celebrated the Capitol assault as a victory in that struggle and continued their plot even after Biden’s electoral victory was licensed, Nestler alleged.
“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,” the prosecutor stated throughout his opening assertion. “They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”
The 5 defendants are the primary Jan. 6 defendants to face trial on the cost of seditious conspiracy, a uncommon Civil War-era cost that requires as much as 20 years behind bars. The stakes are excessive for the Justice Department, which final secured a seditious conspiracy conviction at trial almost 30 years in the past, and intends to attempt two extra teams on the cost later this 12 months.
Defense attorneys accused prosecutors of cherry-picking proof from messages and movies and stated the federal government has no proof there ever was any plan to assault the Capitol. Rhodes’ legal professional stated his shopper will take the stand and present that the Oath Keepers had merely been making ready for orders they anticipated from Trump however by no means got here.
“Stewart Rhodes meant no harm to the Capitol that day. Stewart Rhodes did not have any violent intent that day,” Rhodes’ legal professional, Phillip Linder, stated. “The story the government is trying to tell you today is completely wrong.”
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 properly.
They are amongst roughly 900 individuals who have been charged within the assault, which briefly halted the certification of Biden’s electoral victory, despatched lawmakers operating for canopy and left dozens of law enforcement officials injured.
In the Oath Keepers case, prosecutors will attempt to show that their actions weren’t a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage however a part of an in depth, drawn-out plot to cease Biden from coming into the White House.
The Oath Keepers “were prepared in November, they were prepared in December and when the opportunity finally presented itself on Jan 6, 2021, they sprang into action,” Nestler stated.
Rhodes started plotting to overturn Biden’s victory proper after the election, Nestler stated. In November 2020, Rhodes despatched his followers a step-by-step plan for stopping the switch of energy primarily based on a preferred rebellion that introduced down Yugoslavia’s president 20 years earlier. As December approached, Rhodes’ rhetoric turned more and more violent and determined, Nestler stated.
In messages and feedback learn to the jury, the Oath Keepers repeatedly warned of violence if Biden have been to change into president. During a December interview, Rhodes known as senators “traitors” and warned that the Oath Keepers must “overthrow, abort or abolish Congress.” He described Jan. 6 as a “hard constitutional deadline” for stopping the switch of energy.
The Oath Keepers organized coaching, together with one session on “unconventional warfare.” Before coming to Washington, they arrange “quick reaction force” groups with “weapons of war” stashed at a Virginia resort so they may get them into the capital rapidly if needed, the prosecutor stated.
As Oath Keepers stormed the Capitol in helmets and different battle gear, Rhodes remained on the skin, like “a general surveying his troops on a battlefield,” Nestler stated. After the assault, the elated Oath Keepers went to a Virginia restaurant to rejoice their victory, the prosecutor stated.
They deliberate to proceed “that war,” however “thankfully their plans were foiled,” Nestler stated.
In the times between the riot and Biden’s inauguration, Rhodes spent greater than $17,000 on firearm elements, ammunition and different objects, prosecutors say. About per week after the riot, Rhodes was secretly recorded saying that his “only regret is that they should have brought rifles,” Nestler stated.
Prosecutors confirmed jurors a slew of movies, together with exhibiting Meggs, Harrelson and others firing AR-15 fashion rifles at targets at a spread. Meggs despatched the video, set to rock music, to a bunch on Jan. 5 and declared: “We are ready!” the prosecutor stated.
Among these anticipated to testify throughout the trial, which can final a number of weeks, are three Oath Keepers who’ve pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy and are cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of getting lighter sentences. They embody a person who says that after arriving in Washington, Meggs advised him that one other Florida Oath Keeper had introduced explosives in his RV.
The authorities’s first witness was a FBI agent, who responded on Jan. 6 to assist rescue senators. He described lawmakers crying, damaged doorways and home windows and a scene that “looked like a bomb had gone off.”
Defense legal professionals say prosecutors have ripped the Oath Keepers’ messages out of context to color them unfairly. The Oath Keepers got here to Washington to offer safety at occasions for figures akin to Trump ally Roger Stone earlier than the president’s massive outside rally behind the White House, protection legal professionals stated. Rhodes’ legal professional described the group as a “peacekeeping” pressure and known as his shopper an “extremely patriotic” man who “loves this country.”
Rhodes’ attorneys plan to argue that Rhodes believed Trump was going to 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. Rhodes’ legal professionals have stated he was merely lobbying the president to invoke a U.S. regulation.
Prosecutors say it’s clear the Oath Keepers have been going to behave no matter what Trump did. Nestler advised jurors that Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate, was solely utilizing the Insurrection Act as “legal cover.” In one message, Rhodes wrote in December 2020 that Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.”
An legal professional for Caldwell stated his shopper is a disabled veteran who didn’t even know of the Oath Keepers till November 2020. The protection lawyer, David Fischer, known as Jan. 6 a “black eye” for the nation, however stated Caldwell merely got here to Washington “on a date with his wife” and wasn’t planning to go to the Capitol till Trump’s speech on the Ellipse earlier than the riot.
“Mr. Caldwell couldn’t storm his way out of a paper bag,” Fischer stated. “I came here to clear his name.”
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This story has been corrected to mirror that there are 5 defendants, not 5 males, on trial.
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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”