Opening Statements Start In Oath Keepers’ Seditious Conspiracy Trial

WASHINGTON — The highest-profile trial to be held so far against participants in the Capitol riot got underway Monday as prosecutors began to show jurors how a group of far-right Oath Keepers plotted to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

The Oath Keepers’ founder, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, sat alongside four others linked to the extremist group in federal court, where they are charged with seditious conspiracy against the United States.

Jeffrey Nestler, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, used his opening statements to emphasize how Rhodes and his co-defendants ― Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell ― threatened the “core democratic custom of the routine and peaceful transfer of power” observed since the country’s founding.

“These defendants tried to change that history,” Nestler said.

Later he asserted that “Rhodes’ philosophy perverts the Constitutional order.”

The charge of seditious conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars. It is rarely used — the last time the government attempted to use it was in 2010, against members of a far-right Michigan militia who were ultimately acquitted.

Elmer Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017.

The government’s case against the Oath Keepers, however, appears to be a stronger one. Group text messages obtained by law enforcement illustrate the alleged planning efforts that led the Oath Keepers to arrive at a hotel outside the capital with cases full of high-powered rifles and ammunition, along with tactical gear and essential supplies to last 30 days. The plan, according to prosecutors, was to have the weapons within arm’s reach in the event they were able to use them.

At the time, then-President Trump had incorrectly asserted that Vice President Mike Pence held the power to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. But communications show that Rhodes believed Pence wouldn’t do anything to stop the certification. Instead, Rhodes allegedly believed Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law he appeared to think would allow members of militias to intervene in order to keep Trump in power.

Nestler displayed text messages and audio recordings of Rhodes claiming that all Trump had to do was utter “Insurrection Act” and it would give the Oath Keepers “legal cover” to engage in violence. A recording of Rhodes showed him telling followers they had to prepare to “overthrow, abort or abolish Congress” by force.

“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war,” Rhodes wrote in one text message.

Several short videos from the Capitol attack played in court reminded jurors how chaotic the Jan. 6 riot was. In one of them, several of the defendants can be seen moving in a “stack” formation up to the Capitol, wearing helmets and other tactical gear.

Prosecutors allege that Rhodes was prepared for significant bloodshed. The anti-government group he founded in the wake of Barack Obama’s election was one of the most prominent involved in the Capitol attack, along with the Proud Boys, a white supremacist street gang.

Extremism experts told HuffPost that a successful conviction could damage the Oath Keepers, a loosely formed organization the Anti-Defamation League estimates to be around 1,000 to 3,000 strong. But the sentiments motivating its members will remain, and other violent far-right groups at the fringe will be ready to accept new recruits.

This story will be updated.