On Monday, jurors were offered a window—whether they wanted it or not— into a few intimate moments shared by Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes and Kellye SoRelle, the extremist network’s onetime counsel now facing multiple charges, including obstruction.
Rhodes and SoRelle drove more than 1,000 miles together from Texas to Washington, D.C. ahead of Jan. 6 and in a series of messages entered into evidence Monday, once they landed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Vienna, Virginia, Rhodes had more on his mind than allegedly stopping Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election by force.
“Speaking of fucking… if you need some come on over,” Rhodes wrote to SoRelle on Jan. 3, 2021.
When SoRelle initially declined the offer, Rhodes told her he would drag her into his hotel room.
“That’s how I know you’re trouble. You’re too good at what you do,” she said. “Whole bad boy thing.”
She then confessed: “I am a damn moth to a [fire emoji]. I really am replaying my teenage years.”
RELATED STORY: LIVE: Follow along for Day Nine of the Oath Keepers sedition trial
The sexts were notable given simmering questions around the indicted duo and issues of attorney-client privilege, but the Justice Department showed jurors far more important information on Monday.
That information included yet more Oath Keeepers’ correspondence from the days just ahead of the Capitol assault. This time, the Justice Department presented an array of graphics and maps to show how members and leaders of the network plotted a steady course toward Washington, D.C. mostly by car.
Prosecutors were able to match the movements of Oath Keepers from points in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Arizona with numerous chats and receipts for hotels and other purchases. Several of the text messages showed defendants coordinating rallying points. Many of those meet-ups were arranged before Oath Keepers ever got on the road.
Prosecutors say the members were headed to Arlington, Virginia before D.C. in order to set up their arsenal of weapons for the “quick reaction force.”
Rhodes and his co-defendants facing charges of seditious conspiracy including Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell, Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson argue the “quick reaction force” or QRF, was not intended to launch any attack on the Capitol at all.
Instead, they claim it was formed in preparation for what they expected would be a violent outpouring of protests from leftists, “antifa” and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement hellbent on attacking supporters of former President Donald Trump. The Oath Keepers in this trial group also contend that they were in D.C. to provide “PSDs” or “private security details” for the former president’s mucky-mucks.
QRFs for the Oath Keepers are “typical,” the defense argued during cross-examination of FBI Agent Sylvia Hilgeman. They are so typical and innocuous, defense attorney David Fischer argued, that Oath Keepers openly discussed the use of quick reaction forces” on the company website.
Fischer, who represents defendant Thomas Caldwell, pressed Hilgeman to say whether any of the texts discussing the QRF and its accompanying stockpile of guns, specifically mentioned going to the Capitol.
“I don’t recall any messages that the QRF was for anything for the Capitol,” Hilgeman said.
Fischer could barely contain his excitement. His voice went up slightly as he seized on the framing of Hilgeman’s language.
So, to her understanding, the purpose of the QRF was not to attack the Capitol? he asked.
Hilgeman said no.
Her understanding of the quick reaction force was that it meant to support those trying to stop Joe Biden from becoming the nation’s next president.
“The quick reaction force was meant to occupy D.C.” Hilgeman said.
“You are aware that the QRF didn’t have any long range missiles with them?” Fischer said.
“I’m not aware if they did,” Hilgeman testified.
The remark by Fischer was meant to suggest that the distance between the hotel in Arlington and the Capitol was simply too great—and too plagued by traffic—for Oath Keepers to form any kind of alleged attack or play a support role to those already on the ground.
But Hilgeman reminded him—and the jury—that defendant Caldwell and others also considered launching a boat from the hotel in Virginia to make the trek into Washington with weapons if called upon.
Prosecutors allege Caldwell left his home in rural Virginia long before Jan. 6 to conduct what he called a “prestrike recce” or reconnaissance mission of Washington, in a text. And it was traffic concerns, as well as street closures, that allegedly weighed heavily on his mind and prompted the idea of securing a boat. Last week, jurors saw numerous messages sent by Caldwell as he sought out a boat.
In yet more messages that could be the defendant’s downfall, jurors saw communications featuring Rhodes and Meggs as well as Don Siekerman—an operations leader for the Oath Keepers that has not been charged. The trio discussed plans to provide security details to various Trump allies for Jan. 6.
Those figures included former Trump White House national security adviser Michael Flynn; ‘Stop the Steal’ founder Ali Alexander; GOP fink Roger Stone, and Alex Jones, the rightwing bombast recently ordered by a judge to fork over nearly $1 billion to compensate families he tormented with conspiracy theory about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre for years.
The last time the Oath Keepers worked for Jones, one message said, it was a “great feather in our cap.”
Another “VIP” in the mix for a possible security detail was die-hard Trump supporter Bianca Gracia, founder of Latinos for Trump.
Rhodes also mentioned how the group teamed up with the far right paramilitary group known as the First Amendment Prateorian, or 1AP, for their “last event.”
It was not immediately clear what event Rhodes was referring to in that message.
One point the defendants do wish to make clear to jurors involves that massive weapons stash.
The guns purchased by Rhodes and guns at the QRF, the defense is keen to reiterate, were purchased legally.
This was a key point ahead of trial for Oath Keeper attorneys who did not want to confuse the jury about the existing charges. None are charged with illegally possessing weapons.
For over an hour on Tuesday, prosecutors showed clips of closed circuit security footage obtained from the hotel in northern Virginia where the QRF was stationed. On the feed, members of the Oath Keepers are shown hauling dolly carts with oversized, dark colored bins, one after another, into the hotel on Jan 5. At times, Oath Keepers carried items by hand, using a sheet to obscure whatever they held.
Often, the obscuration wasn’t very good.
The shape of what appeared to be a rifle was just visible underneath fabric in hotel footage of Paul Stamey, a North Carolina-based Oath Keeper.
Stamey is uncharged but prosecutors cite him often as they unravel the alleged conspiracy.
Agent Hilgeman estimated she has probably spent 80 hours reviewing the footage. On Monday, she identified several Oath Keepers in the video, including some who have yet to go to trial like Edward Vallejo. Jurors watched as Vallejo got a running start in the hotel lobby in order to push a luggage cart overloaded with bins allegedly containing the QRF’s weapons, ammunition and other gear.
Receipts and Oath Keeper bank statements displayed too showed Rhodes spending thousands of dollars between Jan. 1 to Jan. 5 on weapons, sights, scopes, including some for night vision, ammunition, triggers and more. All were purchased on the drive up toward D.C.
In a clip from the podcast Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock played in court Monday, Vallejo and Todd Kandaris, another Oath Keeper, are heard discussing the “do or die” moment and telling Hancock how they had just arrived in town.
Kandaris told Hancock there were people in Washington to support Trump’s claims over the “stolen” election.
Kandaris said “the only and obvious next step is to into armed conflict.”
“But we’re very much hoping that doesn’t happen,” he added.
But then, Vallejo piped up a moment later and told Hancock:” We're going to be told, the American people are going to be told that we have liberty and justice for all or they're gonna be told fuck you, OK. And if they're told fuck you, that's going to be the declaration of guerilla war."
"I'm just praying Trump has his head on fucking straight and he knows what he's doing. He's got the machinations behind him, he's got all the proof in the world and he's going bring the fucking hammer down,” Vallejo said.
When the podcast host opined that talk of rectifying Trump’s “stolen” election was often bluster and that it was always someone else’s problem to fix, Vallejo sounded cocksure.
“Well, that’s fine… because I’m the motherfucker that’s gonna fix it for them,” he said.
For even more details, check out today’s live blog or the Twitter thread below. Trial resumes Tuesday at 9:30AM ET.