Using text messages, video and recorded calls, the DOJ is arguing that the defendants set out to overturn the 2020 election results by storming the Capitol and interrupting the electoral vote count.
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington on June 25, 2017. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four other members of the far-right group tried to change history and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors hearing the first"They concocted a plan for an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy," Nestler said.
Rhodes never entered the building on Jan. 6, 2021, but he was photographed on the Capitol grounds"surveying" his troops like a battlefield general, the government said. A couple of minutes before 14 people wearing military-style gear marched toward the building's doors and pushed past the police, Rhodes spoke with his fellow defendant Kelly Meggs, Nestler said in remarks that lasted more than an hour.
"My client did nothing illegal that day, even though it may look inflammatory," Linder said, describing Rhodes' hot-tempered statements before and after Jan. 6 as"nothing more than free speech and bravado." The case is closely watched as a rare use of the seditious conspiracy statute, which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison
After the assault, the defendants felt"elated," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nestler said, citing messages they shared boasting about their actions. Rhodes allegedly wrote,"you ain't seen nothing yet." Meggs, who ran the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, allegedly wrote,"we aren't quitting!! We are reloading!!"
In pretrial filings and arguments, defense lawyers had argued Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers had been preparing to assist in the event that former President Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, which gives the president wide authority to call for support in the event of an emergency. Trump never took that action. But Rhodes is expected to make it a key part of his defense. Prosecutors say that's just a cover story.
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