Oath Keepers Founder: Be ‘Ready To Fight’ After Trump Loss

WASHINGTON, DC — Hours after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the chief of the Oath Keepers extremist group was discussing find out how to push President Donald Trump to go additional in his struggle to cling to energy, in keeping with messages proven to jurors Tuesday in his U.S. Capitol assault trial.

Prosecutors used Stewart Rhodes’ messages and recordings of him talking from November 2020 to attempt to present that he had been working behind the scenes for 2 months to attempt to cease the switch of presidential energy earlier than his followers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rhodes and 4 associates are dealing with prices of seditious conspiracy for what authorities allege was an in depth, drawn-out plot to maintain Biden out of the White Home that included placing armed groups on standby outdoors of Washington. Tuesday was the primary full day of testimony within the high-stakes case that is anticipated to final a number of weeks.

The 5 defendants are the primary individuals arrested within the Jan. 6 assault to face trial for seditious conspiracy — a not often used Civil Struggle-era cost that may be tough to show. Rhodes’ attorneys have mentioned their protection will give attention to Rhodes’ perception that Trump was going to invoke the Riot Act and name up the militia to help his bid to remain in energy.

The messages have been revealed throughout testimony of an FBI agent investigating the revolt. In a number of messages despatched round Nov. 7, 2020 — the day that The Related Press and different information retailers referred to as the election for Biden — Rhodes pressed others to refuse to just accept the outcomes and “bend the knee” to what he noticed as an illegitimate administration. In a single message, Rhodes urged his followers to get their “get your gear squared away” and be “able to struggle.”

In one other — despatched to a bunch referred to as “FOS” or “Mates of Stone” that included Trump ally Roger Stone — Rhodes urged his fellow Oath Keepers to think about the methods early Individuals had resisted the British.

“We are actually the place the founders have been in March, 1775,” he wrote. He implored them to “step up and push Trump to lastly take decisive motion.”

“The ultimate protection is us and our rifles,” Rhodes wrote to the group. “Trump has one final probability, proper now, to face. However he’ll want us and our rifles too.”

The night of Nov. 9, Rhodes held a convention name with greater than 100 of his followers to debate the plan. It was secretly recorded by somebody on the decision and despatched to the FBI.

Rhodes urged individuals on the decision to go to Washington and let Trump know that “the persons are behind him,” in keeping with a recording performed to jurors. Rhodes expressed hope that left-wing antifa activists would begin clashes as a result of that will give Trump the “purpose and rationale for dropping the Riot Act.”

“So we’ve got an opportunity to get President Trump to struggle as Commander in Chief. If you are going to have a struggle, guys, you need to begin now whereas he is nonetheless Commander in Chief,” Rhodes instructed the group.

Rhodes mentioned they might have a few of their “greatest males bolstered up outdoors” — or “fast response forces” that he mentioned could be “awaiting the president’s orders.” It wanted to be that method as a result of that provides you “authorized cowl,” Rhodes mentioned on the decision.

Rhodes’ legal professional sought to indicate that prosecutors are cherry-picking messages from a whole lot of chats on his cellphone. Protection legal professional Phillip Linder pressed the FBI agent over whether or not he ever noticed Rhodes encourage anyone to do something unlawful earlier than prosecutors objected to the query.

“All we’ve got is bombastic language,” Linder mentioned.

Rhodes’ legal professionals have mentioned they’ll argue that their consumer cannot be responsible of seditious conspiracy as a result of all of his actions have been in anticipation of orders he anticipated have been coming from Trump beneath the Riot Act. Regardless that Trump by no means did, Rhodes’ legal professionals say he was merely lobbying the president to invoke the regulation, which provides the president large discretion to determine when army drive is important, and what qualifies as army drive.

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.

Prosecutors confirmed jurors a number of objects discovered at Caldwell’s residence, together with a pocket book with writing about issues like “comms” and “lookouts.” The FBI agent mentioned that “was all indicative to us of some kind of an operation.”

Caldwell’s legal professional, David Fischer, pressed the agent on whether or not the federal government has any witnesses who declare Caldwell had a plan to assault the Capitol on Jan. 6. The agent mentioned it didn’t.