WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors will present fresh evidence as they bring forward new witnesses on Friday in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and four associates for their alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol.
Prosecutors, in the first week of testimony, have so far called to the stand an FBI agent and three former members of the Oath Keepers as they focus on the group’s planning for Jan. 6.
Rhodes and his four co-defendants – Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins – are accused of conspiring to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory in a failed bid to keep Donald Trump, a Republican, in power.
The five defendants are charged with several felonies, including seditious conspiracy, a rarely prosecuted Civil War-era statute defined as attempting “to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States.” It carries a possible prison sentence of 20 years.
In a separate case involving another far-right group, Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino pleaded guilty on Thursday to seditious conspiracy over his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, making him the first member of that group to do so.
Prosecutors say some of the Oath Keepers defendants were among the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building after the then-president falsely claimed the election had been stolen from him through widespread fraud.
Attorneys for the defendants have said the evidence will show that the defendants did nothing illegal and that the Oath Keepers are a peacekeeping group that has done security work at events around the country.
Text messages and audio recordings this week have shown the defendants vowing to reject Biden’s election victory, planning to go to Washington and discussing what weapons they could bring, with Rhodes talking of possible “civil war.”
One witness on Thursday, former Florida Oath Keepers leader Michael Adams, said he had decided to quit in December 2020 when he became uncomfortable with the “rhetoric” coming from the group, in particular open letters that Rhodes had sent to Trump vowing to take action if the former president did not do so.
“If you fail to do your duty, you will leave We the People no choice but to walk in the Founders footsteps, by declaring the regime illegitimate,” Rhodes wrote to Trump, according to a copy of a letter submitted to the FBI.
“We will take to arms in defense” of our liberty, the letter read.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher, editing by Deepa Babington)
