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In the United States, the trial began against the members of the Oath Keepers group who were present at the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2020, when they tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden as US president by Congress. They deny the charge they are accused of: seditious conspiracy.
Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nestler argued in his trial against the extremist group Oath Keepers that its founder, Stewart Rhodes, and four other associates planned an “armed rebellion” on January 6, 2021, in the assault on Capitol Hill. in order to keep then President Donald Trump in power.
According to the prosecutor, the objective of Rhodes and his gang “was to stop, by any means necessary, the legal transfer of presidential power, even taking up arms against the Government of the United States,” and he mentioned that they designed “a plan of armed rebellion to shatter a foundation of American democracy.
These are the first defendants of that day to be tried on the charge of seditious conspiracy, which comes from the Civil War and provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The last time the Justice Department secured such a conviction was in a trial 30 years ago.
“Overthrow, Abort, or Abolish Congress”
The Prosecutor’s Office told the jury that the insurrection was not a spontaneous outburst of anger over the election results, but was part of a detailed plan whose sole purpose was to prevent Joe Biden from reaching the White House.
Nestler referred to the fact that in November 2020 Rhodes sent his followers a detailed plan that was based on a popular uprising like the one that occurred in Yugoslavia 20 years ago and that the rhetoric of the head of the Oath Keepers became more violent and desperate.
During an interview in December, Rhodes called the senators “traitors” and warned that the Oath Keepers would have to “overthrow, abort, or abolish Congress.”
But Rhodes’ defense attorney Phillip Linder painted a different picture, describing the group as a “peacekeeping” force. According to him, the Prosecutor’s Office built the case based on selected evidence from messages and videos. “The story that the government is trying to tell today is completely wrong,” he said.
The lawyer also said that “Rhodes had no intention of harming the Capitol that day” and that they were only preparing for the orders they expected from Trump, which never came.
On trial for the events of January 6, 2020
Some 900 people have been charged and hundreds convicted for the events of that January 6, when rioters, trying to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden as president, crossed the police barriers of the Capitol, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with agents, broke the windows, and entered the building where the Congress was in plenary session, causing moments of panic among the congressmen.
The Oath Keepers also stormed the Capitol in helmets and other combat gear while Rhodes stood outside, like “a general watching over his troops on a battlefield,” Prosecutor Nestler said. After the attack, members of the group were “euphoric,” he said.
Rhodes wrote messages on January 6 that have drawn attention in the trial. “That the patriots enter their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is nothing compared to what is coming” was one of them.
$17,000 worth of guns and ammunition
Before Biden’s inauguration, prosecutors said Rhodes spent about $17,000 on firearms, ammunition and other items and that the Oath Keepers chief’s order was to organize militias to oppose the Democrat’s nomination.
“These defendants were waging a war and they won a battle on January 6, but they planned to continue waging that war to stop the transfer of power before the day of the investiture. Fortunately, their plans were frustrated,” the prosecution said in its arguments.
The defense maintains that the Oath Keepers went to Washington with the sole purpose of providing security at the events where former President Donald Trump’s ally, Roger Stone, was going to be present, and that the members of the group that acted in the attack on the Capitol did so because of your account.
In addition to Rhodes, the Florida leader of the Oath Keepers, Kelly Meggs; Kenneth Harrelson, also from Florida; Thomas Caldwell, a US Navy intelligence officer, and Jessica Watkins, who led a militia group from Ohio.
Meggs and Harrelson were the ones who guided a group of seven people to the House of Representatives side of the Capitol, where, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, they were specifically looking for the president of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
with AP
