An Opening Statement by Oath Keepers on January 6, 2021: The Case of Rhodes and Four Other Accused Charged Political Anomalies

Rhodes testified that he asked who the call was from when he woke up in a hotel room. He said another Oath Keeper said, “Trump supporters.” He later went to the Capitol grounds.

With the historic case that they had brought against Oath Keepers accused of plotting to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, prosecutors framed up how the jury should think about the allegations with an hour-plus opening statement that kicked off the trial in earnest.

The transfer of power was a core democratic custom stretching back to the time of George Washington, as indicated by the start by Nestler.

The most serious criminal case yet relating to the siege on the seat of government is the one with Rhodes and four other defendants. Hundreds of text messages and witnesses have been presented by the prosecutors who tied the defendants to some of the most violent statements against the former president.

They told the jury what they were going to do and wrote it down. “When the opportunity finally presented itself … they sprang into action.”

A lawyer for Rhodes, the first defense attorney to deliver an opening statement told the jurors that they will see evidence that will show that the defendants “had no part in the bulk” of the violence that occurred on January 6.

“You may not like what you see and hear our defendants did,” attorney Phillip Linder said, “but the evidence will show that they didn’t do anything illegal that day.”

The Justice Department began its opening statement with the accusation that the defendants sought to “stop by any means necessary” the lawful transfer of presidential power, “including taking up arms against the United States government.”

The jury saw the Capitol map and video clips as they watched the trial. Nestler also had a physical chart, perched on an easel in the courtroom, listing out the alleged co-conspirators.

The prosecutor used the trial footage to identify the defendants and other accused in the attack. When the video of Kelly Meggs was presented, it was noted that he had a patch on that said: “I am just here for the violence.”

“There is evidence that you will hear that they had more than one reason to be here in DC, in addition to attacking Congress,” the prosecutor said. Many others were expected to attend the rally near the White House earlier in the day. Nestler also referenced to potential attempts by the defense to argue the Oath Keepers were preparing to come to DC to serve as security, noting that the defendants weren’t licensed, trained or paid for their security work.

The defense has indicated that it will argue that the Oath Keepers are preparing to respond to the Insurrection Act, which was rumored to be going to be invoked by Trump.

Being a bad security guard is not illegal. He said that. The goal they were preparing for was not legal, according to the prosecutor.

Nestler’s alleged crimes against Jan. 6, 2020, in order to obstruct the certification of Mr. Biden at a Joint Session of Congress

The president did not invoke the Insurrection Act. “These defendants needed to take matters into their own hands. They needed to activate the plan they had agreed on.”

The Justice Department also emphasized the backgrounds of some of the defendants and how that fit into the department’s theory of the case. Rhodes is a graduate of Yale Law school. He told his co-conspirators to be careful with their words, as he knew to be cautious with his words.

Thomas Caldwell, another defendant, served in the military, Nestler said. His water experience made him want to use boats to get across the river.

In December 2020, Rhodes told others that January 6 presented a “hard constitutional deadline,” according to prosecutors, and that they would need to “do it ourselves” if Trump didn’t stop the certification of the election.

“With time, as their options dwindled and it became more and more likely that power would be transferred,” Nestler said Monday, “these defendants became more and more desperate and more and more focused on that date that Rhodes referred to as a constitutional deadline.”

The guns the Oath Keepers were accused of storing at a Virginia hotel were used to speed into the city on Jan. 6 if necessary.

Nestler’s opening described the “stack” formations the defendants allegedly used to enter the Capitol. He played a video of defendant Jessica Watkins, who allegedly led the first group, pushing against a crowd outside the House chamber shouting “push, push, push! Get in there and they won’t hold us.

The second group positioned themselves outside of a suite of offices belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nestler said. Nestler said that Meggs had a “keen interest in Speaker Pelosi,” and later told associates that “we looked for her.”

The defendants were described as “elated,” “proud,” and “boastful” at first. The defendants fled the town and instructed one another to keep quiet because they were in legal jeopardy.

The co-conspirators, including Mr. Rhodes, are facing two other conspiracy counts. One accuses them of plotting to obstruct the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The other charges them with working together to prevent federal officers from discharging their duties that day.

“My only regret is that they should have brought rifles… we could have fixed it right then and there.” Rhodes said of January 6, according to the Justice Department’s opening.

He thought that the jury would see some gaps in the evidence, such as video. The defense will fill the gaps when the prosecutors put their case together, he said.

As the defense attorney delivered his opening, he was told by the judge to avoid topics that had been deemed out of bounds for the trial – with at one point, Judge Amit Mehta bringing him up to the bench for a private discussion.

Among the off-limits topics brought up by Linder that prompted the interventions were comments about the amount prison time the charges bring, the congressional narrative around January 6, remarks about defendants sitting in jail, and certain details about the Insurrection Act.

“The real evidence is going to show you that our clients were there to do security for events for the 5th and the 6th,” Linder said, while calling his client a “extremely patriotic” and a “constitutional expert.”

“Stewart Rhodes did not mean anything to the Capitol when he said ‘free speech and bravado’,” said a statement from the office of the president.

Rhodes also denied having any communications with fellow defendants Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell on Jan. 6. The other people in the group were in charge of communications. He said he was not a micromanager of the Oath Keepers.

The justice department is pointing to a military term called the Quick Reaction Force that Caldwell allegedly organized that day, according to the attorney for Caldwell.

He stressed the word “reaction” in that term, and said that QRFs are organized to respond “to emergency situations,” describing a QRF as “a break the glass emergency team.”

Of the hundreds of witnesses, including several Oath Keepers, that the Justice Department has interviewed in its investigation, “not one single solitary person they have interview[ed] has said that the QRF was meant to attack the United States Capitol,” Fischer said. He pointed out that protesters taking place in other States across the country were organized by the Oath Keepers.

According to the charge from the DOJ, there are agreements that hinder the government’s ability to conduct its business, and so the defense would argue that the Justice Department had not proven that Caldwell had organized the QRF with that goal in mind.

Fischer also launched an extensive critique of how the FBI handled its investigation into his client, calling what happened to Caldwell and his wife “an absolute outrage.” Fischer said that the Facebook messages the FBI used to justify Caldwell’s arrest were actually lines from the movie “The Princess Bride.”

“There was some other powerful evidence … the agent had an issue with a Facebook message that said … ‘I’m such an instigator’ … he also said ‘storming the castle,’” “I told you so,” he said.

The Justice Department’s case against Watkins was missing context in other respects, as evidenced by the comments of Jonathan Crisp, an attorney for Watkins.

“The Zello chats sound incredibly damming if you listen to them in a vacuum,” he said, while suggesting to the jury that his client did not hear a lot of what was said on the walkie talkie application through the noise of the riot. He pointed to her attempts to talk to the FBI.

The FBI Agent Michael Palian, the First Prosecutor Witness, and the Jurors of the Associated Senate Appropriations

The first prosecution witness, FBI agent Michael Palian, testified that he witnessed senators crying as they hid from rioters who entered the Capitol on January 6.

The jury was informed by Palian that on January 6, he was sent to the Capitol and tasked with guarding a group of senators.

When he arrived, Palian said the scene was chaotic. The best description of what the senators were feeling would be shock. Some people were crying.

Palian and approximately 70 other agents escorted senators back to the Senate chamber later that night where they resumed counting electoral college votes, he testified. The jury was told that the Capitol looked like a bomb had gone off.

Early into Monday’s proceedings, before the jury was brought in, Mehta went to great lengths to emphasize that the jury had “no preconceived” prejudices towards the Oath Keepers and the defendants specifically.

He did so while explaining why he was denying a request from the defendants that the case be transferred to Virginia. Mehta ticked through statistics from the jury selection process that shed light on how the jurors had responded to questions meant to test their impartiality.

The Oath Keepers of the Million MAGA and Jericho Marches: a counterprotest against antifa and security for Mr. Stone

The jury has seen evidence that Mr. Rhodes and other Oath Keepers marshaled weapons — including assault-style rifles and cut-off pool cues — while preparing to attend two pro-Trump rallies in Washington before Jan. 6: one called the Million MAGA March, on Nov. 14, 2020, and a subsequent gathering known as the Jericho March, on Dec. 12.

Instead, the lawyers have said, the Oath Keepers had prepared for defensive maneuvers against antifa, believing that leftist counterprotesters would attack Trump supporters that day. The lawyers say the group was waiting for Mr. Trump to invoke the insurrection act so that they could use force of arms in support of him.

Mr. Meggs also played an instrumental role in the Oath Keepers’ getting the job of providing security to Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s longtime political adviser, who was scheduled to speak at rallies on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. The group’s lawyers suggest the Oath Keepers went to Washington to protect pro- Trump people, not to attack the Capitol.

The leader of Mr. Meggs’ ground team was a welder from Florida named Mr. Harrelson.

The activities and beliefs of Mr. Harrelson in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 are mostly unknown as he deleted his cellphone messages after the Oath Keepers left Washington.

Summary of the trial of Rhodes and three of his alleged co-conspirators in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol

Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. Times staff members are not allowed toendorse or campaign for candidates. Participation in marches or rallies, giving money to or raising money for a political candidate or election cause is included.

Evidence will show that Mr. Harrelson went to a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va., as part of the ” quick reaction force” to rush into Washington and aid the Oath Keepers if things went wrong.

Mr. Harrelson, Mr. Meggs, and Mr. Pelosi are likely to be told how they entered the building.

The trial against the founder of Oath Keepers and other members of the far-right group ended Thursday after a month of testimony.

The trial is the most consequential aspect of the investigation into the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. Rhodes and the other defendants are accused of plotting to use force to prevent Joe Biden from taking office as president.

The jurors heard testimony from more than two dozen people, including FBI agents, former Oath Keepers, and Capitol Police officers.

Rhodes and his alleged co-conspirators — Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are charged with seditious conspiracy, obstruction and other offenses in connection with Jan. 6.

The trio climbed up the Capitol steps and into the building, dressed in tactical gear. Both Rhodes and Caldwell were outside on Capitol grounds.

Jason Alpers meets Stewart Rhodes and a group of Oath Keepers during the Jan. 6 assault on an electronics store in D.C.

According to prosecutors, the conspiracy continued even after Biden’s inauguration. The government used one of its last witnesses to introduce critical evidence on that front.

Prosecutors called Jason Alpers, a military veteran who now does software development in Texas, testified Wednesday that a few days after the Capitol attack he met Rhodes and a few other Oath Keepers in the parking lot of an electronics store in the Dallas area.

“If you don’t, then Biden/Kamala will turn all that power on you, your family, and all of us. You and your family will be imprisoned and killed,” Rhodes wrote in the message, which was shown to the jury. “And us veterans will die in combat on US soil, fighting against traitors who YOU turned over all the powers of the Presidency to.”

Rhodes urges Trump to be the “savior of the Republic, not a man who surrendered it to deadly traitors and enemies, who then enslaved and murdered millions of Americans.”

Prosecutors also played clips of the recording Alpers made of the meeting. If he isn’t going to do the right thing and he’s just gonna let himself be removed illegally, then we should have brought rifles. We could’ve fixed it right away. I’d hang f** Pelosi from the lamppost.”

“Asking for civil war to be on American ground and understanding, being a person who’s gone to war, that means blood is going to get shed on the streets where your family lives,” Alpers testified. I was wondering if pushing this to President Trump was in the best interest.

There were 13 The intelligence community and law enforcement agencies did successfully detect the planning for potential violence on Jan. 6, including planning specifically by the Proud Boys and Oath Keeper militia groups who ultimately led the attack on the Capitol. The intelligence said that there could be violence at the Capitol. The intelligence was given to the executive branch by the Secret Service and National Security Council.

Stewart Rhodes has testified in his own defense in his federal trial that he was not part of planning the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and that members of the far-right Oath Keepers group who busted into the building made a “stupid” decision.

The trial is currently in its sixth week, and according to Rhodes, it’s exactly how it opened the door for our political enemies to persecute us.

After the attack, Rhodes said, a woman he describes as his lawyer but that prosecutors call his girlfriend instructed Oath Keepers to keep quiet about their activities. Rhodes said the woman, Kellye SoRelle, acted on her own when she told Oath Keepers to delete text messages and other materials that might incriminate them.

Rhodes said he brushed off her warning that law enforcement would soon appear at his doorstep, describing himself as a “dissident” authorities know where to find if they want him.

The Campaign of the Protecting the Proud Boys: Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl

Federal prosecutors intend to prove that four leaders of the Proud Boys – Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl – plotted and broadly encouraged violence in the build up to January 6.

As the battle at the Capitol ensued, members of the hand selected MOSD including Pezzola can be seen in videos consistently on the front lines of the riot, prosecutors say. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl allegedly stayed back, opting to follow once others had already broken through police lines.

Ethan Nordean, 31, is a Proud Boys leader from Washington state. A video of him punching a protester went public, and he is now known as Rufio Panman.

Joseph Biggs, 38, is an Army veteran and Proud Boys leader from Florida. The far-right outlet who peddles false conspiracy theories has a correspondent named Biggs who was previously there.

“If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] will be political prisoners. We won’t go quietly…I promise,” Tarrio allegedly posted online in the days after the election was called for Joe Biden.

Tarrio and his associates created a new national chapter of the Proud Boys called the Ministry of Self Defense after Trump said on his social media accounts that he was going to hold a rally. The MOSD was allegedly made up of more than 90 “hand selected members” and “rally boys” – members who were willing to break the law – and were encouraged not to wear the traditional Proud Boys uniform of black and yellow polos when they came to DC.

The MOSD, Tarrio allegedly informed new members, would have a “top down structure.” According to prosecutors, the MOSD leaders were He, Biggs and Nordean. Several others including Rehl were also part of MOSD leadership.

Tarrio was arrested in Washington DC on January 4, 2021, for burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner and bringing high-capacity rifle magazines into the district. He was ordered by a judge to leave the city. In encrypted leadership chats, Tarrio allegedly told other members he hoped his arrest could inspire people to lash out violently against police.

A group of approximately 100 Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument the morning of January 6, prosecutors say. Several members had walkie-talkie style radios and were commanded to march by a bullhorn by the two of them.

The group arrived at the Capitol around 15 minutes before Congress was set to start the joint proceeding to certify the 2020 election, according to videos from that day, and walked to an access point on the west side of the building. According to prosecutors, a Proud Boy named Ryan Samsel spoke to Biggs just one minute before he broke through the barricades.

Pezzola smashed a window with a stolen police riot shield when the mob arrived at the Capitol. The first members of the mob got into the Capitol building through that window. The Senate suspended its session minutes later.

The Capitol Police, the Oath Keepers, and the Washington D.C. Committee on Investigations of the Decay of the Proud Boys

The Justice Department has already successfully prosecuted a seditious conspiracy case against leaders of the Oath Keepers, which could act as a model for prosecutors as they turn to the Proud Boys.

In previous court filings, prosecutors said Proud Boys leaders encouraged their followers to turn their heads off and use that to interfere with the congressional proceeding.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Rachel Carroll Rivas told CNN that if Tarrio is found guilty, the Proud Boys will continue to exist.

Rivas says that the group’s goal is to create chaos, fear and uncertainty so as to cause more people to speak up against them.

1. Neither the intelligence community nor law enforcement obtained intelligence in advance of Jan. 6 on the full extent of the ongoing planning by President Trump, John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani and their associates to overturn the certified election results. The agencies probably did not know that President Trump would encourage the crowd to march to the Capitol while he was in Ellipse, and that there would be a violent riot. Law enforcement did not expect that the President would refuse to direct his supporters to leave the Capitol. No intelligence community advance analysis predicted the exact nature of the threat to the Capitol on Jan. 6th, and no analysis gave a full view of it.

The committee was criticized by Republicans for not focusing more on the failures in intelligence and law enforcement in the weeks leading up to the Capitol attack. But the panel did present some preliminary findings and may ultimately issue a separate report.

1. Hundreds of Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers performed their duties bravely on Jan. 6, and America owes those individual immense gratitude for their courage in the defense of Congress and our constitution. Jan. 6 would not have been as bad if they hadn’t risked their lives. The Capitol Police leadership did not have sufficient assets in place to address the violent and lawless crowd who were present on January 6. Capitol police leadership did not anticipate the violence that would erupt after President Trump ordered tens of thousands of his supporters to march to the Capitol. Although Chief Steven Sund raised the idea of National Guard support, the Capitol Police Board did not request Guard assistance prior to Jan. 6. The Metropolitan Police was even more proactive in January and deployed 800 officers, including responding to emergency calls at the Capitol. Rioters still managed to break their line in certain locations, when the crowd surged forward in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet. The Department of Justice had prepared a group of agents at the District of Columbia, as well as at the Marine base inQuantico, so that they would be able to respond quickly to any violence at the Capitol. Agents from the Department of Homeland Security were also deployed to assist.

The issue of why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive at the Capitol is one of the more enduring mysteries of January. While the committee sharply criticized Mr. Trump for failing to taking action that day, it also found that there was no evidence the deployment of the Guard was delayed for political reasons.

The US Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021: Six convicted members of the Oath Keepers and a request for a mistrial

Six people affiliated with the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia, were convicted Monday of various charges related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol insurrection.

Four defendants were found guilty on charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent a member of congress from doing their duty, civil disorder and destruction of government property.

The high-level convictions for four defendants is another significant win for the Justice Department, which has worked for years to bring consequences against people who they say plotted for violence at the Capitol that day – the largest criminal investigation in the department’s history – and comes as some conservatives continue to promote the false narrative the riots were peaceful.

Prosecutors said those two defendants – Michael Greene, a military veteran accused of being the Oath Keepers “operation leader” on January 6, and Bennie Parker, the husband of Sandra, did not go into the Capitol itself but were still part of the conspiracy.

District Judge Amit Mehta denied the government’s motion to detain the six individuals pending their sentencing, noting that they have each obeyed conditions of release in the case.

The trial briefly descended into disarray on Monday after the jury was given access to two videos that the judge had banned during the trial.

The defense asked for a mistrial because two video clips that were part of a lengthy showing of violence on January 6, 2021, were not shown to the jury.

The only two videos that show the actions taken by anyone at the US Capitol are the ones that show riots in the west side and law enforcement officers being accosted in the Capitol Visitor.

Mehta said in the Washington, DC, courtroom that he didn’t agree with the request for a mistrial. “Maybe I’m wrong.”

Defense lawyer Juli Haller first flagged the mistake on Wednesday, prosecutors said, but the situation wasn’t brought to the judge’s attention until Friday. Haller, who has clashed with Mehta before, said that jurors had access to the footage for several days and have already come to a verdict on some counts.

Mehta replied that the trials work for those who have never done them before. He said defense attorneys could review the exhibits the jurors were given and most of them signed a declaration that they agreed with prosecutors on the exhibits.

“Am I asking?” Mehta ordered her to sit down and not interrupt again. Mehta ordered at least two other lawyers to sit down during the exchange.

Mehta did not ask the jury if they had reviewed them. “If you haven’t reviewed them, I’m going to ask you to ignore them. If you have, please disregard.”

Mehta was queried by a juror if the jury would be allowed to look at the two clips and see if they were taken into account during their deliberations. The juror turned to another juror and they threw their hands up, after the judge said no. A third juror took a deep breath and put her hands behind her head.

The trial of the five Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged role in the January 6 Capitol riot began Monday at the same DC courthouse.

Prosecutors allege that Tarrio, who was the chairman of the organization, plotted with his close deputies Nordean, Biggs and Rehl in the lead-up to the riot and recruited others to help stop Joe Biden from becoming president. According to them, the members stood back and allowed others to take action, and then followed behind after a path was cleared.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/20/politics/oath-keepers-proud-boys/index.html

The New Year Prosecutor’s Trial Kickstarted with Drama and Threats from the Judgment. V. On the First Day of The Trial

The trial began in earnest with opening statements in January, though jury selection started in late December. The nine-week presentation of evidence by the prosecutors was disrupted by courtroom drama, hijinks and threats from the judge to hold defense lawyers in contempt.