Oath Keepers founding leader Stewart Rhodes not only «called for war» in the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt in Washington, but is also the «architect» of that attempt to stop the transfer of power to President Joe Biden, prosecutors have said in the trial he faces on sedition charges.
For the past seven weeks, Rhodes has been on trial for his role in the assault on the Capitol along with four other members of the far-right militia. This is the first trial in more than a decade against an extremist group in the United States for crimes of this nature.
«On January 6, our democracy was under attack,» emphasized Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy during her closing argument, who said that both Rhodes and his supporters believed they were anointed to defend their own version of the election in which Donald Trump was defeated. Rakoczy recalled how Rhodes said he was prepared to «start a rebellion the day Biden took office» and that as he himself «admitted on the stand, that is what he was going to do. In that sense, he has mentioned how the defendant pretended that Trump invoked the Insurrection Act in order to act.
Sedition and conspiracy are the most important charges that have been brought against the approximately 850 people who have been arrested for their participation in those riots. The main charge that prosecutors have filed is unlawful entry into a restricted place, while the rest of the most recurrent charges are for assault or resisting arrest.
Rhodes, 57, has been at the helm of the group since he founded it back in 2009. He is a former Army paratrooper who is currently in custody in Texas, following a court ruling that warned that he has the capacity to «finance future insurrections».
Rhodes’ case was the first major indictment of a member of these militias present at the January 6 uprisings. Until then, the other members of these groups, such as the Proud Boys or the Three Percenters, although accused of conspiring to hinder a legal process, did not include the politically charged nuance of sedition.
The other four are Kelly Meggs, 53, head of the Florida chapter of Oath Keepers along with Kenneth Harrelson, 41, another of those arrested; Jessica Watkins, 40, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan before joining the Ohio group; and Thomas Caldwell, 68, an FBI employee and former Navy commander, who has denied belonging to the group.
For weeks, the prosecution has shown social media posts, emails, videos and call logs to evidence coordination among the defendants before, during and after the attack. The evidence shows that some of them traveled together to Washington and hid weapons in a hotel in Virginia.
For its part, the defense has argued that Rhodes’ presence in Washington was in his interest to act as a «peacekeeper» if clashes broke out between Trump supporters and anti-fascist groups, and while it acknowledges «terribly heated rhetoric,» that is not synonymous with an agreement to overthrow the government.
Rhodes, who has testified in his own defense, has sought to distance himself from the other defendants, claiming he was not involved in storing firearms in a Virginia hotel and calling some of his fellow defendants «stupid» for entering the Capitol building.
