By Alanna Durkin Richer and Lindsay Whitehurst | Related Press
WASHINGTON — Oath Keepers chief Stewart Rhodes advised jurors there was no plan for his band of extremists to assault the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as he tried Monday to clear his identify in his seditious conspiracy trial.
Taking the stand in his protection for a second day, Rhodes testified that he had no concept that his followers have been going to hitch the pro-Donald Trump mob to storm the Capitol and that he was upset after he discovered that some did. “There was no plan to enter the constructing for any function,” Rhodes stated.
Rhodes stated he believed it was silly for any Oath Keepers to enter the Capitol. He insisted that was not their “mission.”
In textual content messages on the day of the assault, although, Rhodes struck a distinct notice, referring to Trump supporters who entered the Capitol as “precise patriots.” Fairly than telling his followers to keep away from the riot, he known as them to the world. Rhodes maintained that was merely a meetup level to go away, however prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy identified Rhodes by no means condemned the riot. Hours after it ended, he wrote a message saying “you ain’t seen nothing but.”
She additionally confirmed a number of messages the place Rhodes referred to “us and our rifles” or “boots on the bottom” forward of Jan. 6. Rhodes had been “saying for weeks, if not months, that when the president didn’t act your supporters would take issues into their very own palms,” she stated.
Rhodes stated Monday that he was speaking about what he thought may occur after Jan. 6.
Rhodes is on trial with 4 others for what prosecutors have alleged was a plan to stage an armed rebel to cease the switch of presidential energy from Republican Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors have tried to indicate that for the Oath Keepers, then riot was not a spur-of-the-moment protest however a part of a critical, weekslong plot.
Rhodes’ protection is concentrated largely on his the concept that his rhetoric was aimed toward persuading Trump to invoke the Riot Act, which provides the president vast discretion to resolve when navy pressure is critical and what qualifies as navy pressure. Rhodes advised jurors he believed it might have been authorized for Trump to invoke that act and name up a militia in response to what he believed was an “unconstitutional” and “invalid” election.
“All of my effort was on what Trump may do,” Rhodes stated.
It was not fully clear what Rhodes would have wished the militia to do after being known as up by Trump. However he insisted that disrupting the certification of the vote was not one in all his objectives and he anticipated that it might be licensed.
Prosecutors say Rhodes’ personal phrases present that he was utilizing the Riot Act as authorized cowl and that he was going to behave it doesn't matter what Trump did. Messages Rhodes despatched embody one other from December 2020 by which he stated Trump “must know that if he fails to behave, then we'll.”
One other Oath Keeper beforehand testified as a part of an settlement with prosecutors that he and others within the group have been ready to make use of “any means obligatory” to cease the certification of the vote.
Rhodes additionally addressed one other key a part of prosecutors’ case: an enormous arsenal of weapons the Oath Keepers had a lodge at close by Virginia. Prosecutors say the weapons have been a component of a so-called fast response pressure that the group may deploy rapidly to Washington.
Rhodes claimed the weapons weren’t for a fast response pressure, although the prosecution once more confirmed a number of messages the place he referred to the weapons by that identify and one the place he stated the “scenario requires it.”
Rhodes didn't go into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and prosecutors have described him as “a normal surveying his troops on a battlefield.” Rhodes stated that he merely went to the Capitol to seek out his Oath Keeper followers who weren't on a safety “mission” defending figures resembling Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant. Rhodes stated he didn’t even notice that one in all his males who went into the Capitol had performed so till he noticed him in an FBI picture.
Prosecutors have spent weeks methodically laying out proof that reveals Rhodes and the Oath Keepers discussing the prospect of violence earlier than Jan. 6 and the necessity to preserve Biden out of the White Home in any respect prices.
Amongst their key witnesses have been two of Rhodes’ former followers who pleaded responsible within the Capitol assault and agreed to cooperate with investigators within the hopes of getting a lighter sentence. One advised jurors that the Oath Keepers have been ready to cease the certification of Biden’s electoral victory by “any means obligatory,” together with by taking on arms.
Three Oath Keepers who pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy and struck cooperation offers with prosecutors have been notably not placed on the stand by the federal government. It’s unclear why.
The defendants are the primary amongst a whole lot of individuals arrested within the Capitol riot to face trial on the Civil Battle-era cost that requires as much as 20 years behind bars. The Justice Division final secured such a conviction at trial almost 30 years in the past and intends to attempt two extra teams on the cost later this 12 months.
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 prices along with seditious conspiracy.