Washington – In the months before January 6 attack on the Capitol, Prosecutors say Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes’ rhetoric grew more desperate and violent, calling on then-President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to allow armed resistance against a rogue government.
“It’s going to be 1776 all over again,” Rhodes wrote in an Oath Keepers leadership message group. “Strength on strength is the way to go.”
Invoking the act would have meant Trump could temporarily use the military to enforce civilian law, which has otherwise been prohibited since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. In the eyes of the Oath Keepers, the rogue government to stop was the incoming Biden administration.
Rhodes, the founder of the far-right group, and four co-defendants remain accused of seditious conspiracy, a broad charge that in this case applies the use of force to resist the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. The defendants are also on trial in Washington, DC, on other charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. To win a seditious conspiracy conviction, prosecutors must be able to convince a jury that the defendants voluntarily conspired to forcibly shut down the government, a task they say will take weeks.
FBI Special Agent Byron Cody, who began investigating the Oath Keepers shortly after the attack, testified about Rhodes’ weeks-long plan for him and his followers, and ultimately Trump, to resist the Mr. Biden’s legal choice. In the trial there is no evidence that this alleged plan reached the former president.
“I told you the Dems would steal it,” Rhodes allegedly wrote in another message, “Trump has one and only one option left,” referring to the Insurrection Act.
Rhodes’ alleged plan, which never came to fruition, involved declaring President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris illegitimate and using community organizers and sheriffs’ associations across the country to fight back if necessary, he said. bequeath cody
“Trump had one last chance to act. He must use the insurrection act,” Rhodes is accused of writing on December 14, 2020.
In an open letter to the former president written on Dec. 23, 2020, the second of two letters, prosecutors say Rhodes urged Trump to follow George Washington’s example during the Revolutionary War and “attack.”
“Recognize that you are already in a war,” the letter posted on the Oath Keepers website said: “You must act like a president in a time of war.”
Rhodes advised the president to purge the government of what he said were corrupt politicians and judges of all political stripes who harmed Trump — a baseless conspiracy theory that circulates regularly in certain circles of extremist groups — and install him a “true patriot” as Acting Attorney General. .
The date of certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, Rhodes told Trump in the letter, it would be too late. Many of Rhodes’ alleged calls to action spanned numerous dates, as far back as November 2020, in the days following the election, and the government claims that Rhodes ultimately saw January 6 as a “hard constitutional limit”. Much of the evidence presented at trial so far predates the day of the attack.
“If you fail in your duty, you will leave We the People no choice but to follow in the footsteps of the Founders,” Rhodes wrote in that December open letter: “We will take up arms in defense of the freedom God has given. ”
“Keep your promise. Drain the swamp. Do it now! We’ll help you every step of the way.”
Prosecutors also presented the jury with a December 30, 2020 text from Rhodes to other members of the Oath Keepers in which he claimed to have been trying to advise Trump by establishing possible “back channels” to the then-president. No evidence has so far been presented at trial that Rhodes managed to contact him, but a former leader of the North Carolina Oath Keepers admitted as part of a plea deal earlier this year that he had heard from Rhodes on the phone with someone on the evening of January 6, imploring the individual to tell Trump to call on groups like the Oath Keepers to forcefully oppose the transfer of power. Rhodes’ defense denies this claim.
Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act, but the five Oath Keepers on trial, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are also accused of stockpiling weapons outside Washington, DC on January 6 and coordinating their movements during the attack, some of them finally entering the building.
Defense lawyers have told the trial jury that the group was not as organized as prosecutors suggest and that the defendants engaged in a “bravado”. The stockpiling of weapons and supplies before January 6 in Virginia, where gun laws are less restrictive, was allegedly carried out in case some sort of defensive action was needed. The defendants, they said, were mostly in DC to provide aid and security during the demonstration. Defense lawyers have also hinted that the Insurrection Act would be a key part of their defence, arguing that preparing for a call to action that never comes does not amount to a seditious conspiracy.
The jury Friday also heard from U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent Ryan McCanley, a veteran of the force, who testified that on Dec. 12, 2020, he saw a group of Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, protesting in Washington, DC while on duty. a plainclothes officer. McCanley said he took a photo of Rhodes to share with his fellow officers and make them aware of the Oath Keepers founder’s presence.
On cross-examination, McCanley testified that Rhodes did not engage in any violent acts that day and, according to him, was not accused of any violent acts of protest in the past. Rhodes and his co-defendants are not charged with any violent crimes as of Jan. 6.
Still, the government has alleged throughout the week that Rhodes and other Oath Keepers discussed using violence in the days after the election. Evidence from his evidence so far has focused on text messages, social media videos and a taped meeting from November 2020, in which Rhodes asked his audience to be ready to “fight back” during a pro- -Trump in DC later this month. .
The man who recorded that meeting, Abdullah Rasheed, was called as a government witness Thursday and said that while he was once a leader of the West Virginia Oath Keepers chapter, he was troubled by Rhodes’ rhetoric .
“It was appalling what was being put on the table,” said Rasheed, who later testified under questioning that he had a previous conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Speaking under his breath and shifting nervously in his chair, he said, “It looked like we were going to war with the United States government.”
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