With the scent of a successful seditious conspiracy conviction for the founder of the Oath Keepers and one of his division leaders still lingering in the air, a new trial is set to begin in Washington, D.C., for another batch of Oath Keepers who prosecutors say were part and parcel of the plot to stop the transfer of power on Jan. 6.
RELATED STORY: Oath Keepers Elmer Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs found guilty of seditious conspiracy
This second batch of Oath Keepers on trial for seditious conspiracy are Roberto Minuta of New Jersey, Joseph Hackett and David Moerschel of Florida, and Edward Vallejo of Arizona. They were all charged alongside Rhodes in the initial seditious conspiracy indictment by the Justice Department and all face charges similar to those leveled against Rhodes and his co-defendants Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson, and Thomas Caldwell.
Minuta, Hackett, Moerschel, and Vallejo were split off from the Rhodes trial group due to logistical issues. While the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., may be large, presiding U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found it would be too difficult to accommodate all nine defendants, their attorneys, paralegals, prosecutors, press, and spectators into a single courtroom.
This batch of defendants is different from the Rhodes group in some key ways. None were considered senior-most leaders atop the Oath Keepers organization. Minuta was on a “protective detail” for Roger Stone on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 and later stormed the Capitol as part of a second stack formation of Oath Keepers during the insurrection.
Both Hackett and Moerschel were in the first stack formation and effectively reported to Kelly Meggs. Meggs, like Rhodes, was found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Their trial co-defendant, Harrelson, was not. Harrelson’s acquittal on that count likely had much to do with the fact that unlike Meggs, Harrelson was not seen in text after text discussing Jan. 6 with his co-conspirators and was not part of a stack, though he did enter the Capitol building and was seen on the steps waving members of the stack inside.
Vallejo never entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Instead, he stationed himself at a hotel in northern Virginia that Oath Keepers dubbed their “QRF” or “quick reaction force.” An arsenal of weapons was stashed there and Vallejo stayed on site to guard them, communicating with leadership as the day progressed. It was one of two “QRFs” Oath Keepers set up in Virginia.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The prosecutors are expected to launch a case similar to the one that just played out for a grueling two months where the Oath Keepers steadfastly spoke of their resistance to and rejection of the results of the 2020 election.
Find a more detailed breakdown of the defendants below.
Roberto Minuta
Minuta faces five counts: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings.
Minuta, 38, owned a tattoo shop in Newburgh, New York. He was dubbed a “lifetime Oath Keeper” by Rhodes after he refused to close his shop in light of COVID-19 protocols in May 2020. Minuta drove to Washington, D.C., late on Jan. 5 and hit the street the next morning wearing a tactical vest and carrying chemical spray. He also wore ballistic goggles, hard-knuckle gloves, and an earpiece, court records show. Prosecutors say Minuta viciously taunted police protecting the Capitol and eventually forced his way inside. He was seen inside the Capitol on closed-circuit security footage holding a phone to his ear. Once exiting, he was spotted congregating with Oath Keepers Meggs, Harrelson, Watkins, James, Hackett, Moerschel, and others. Rhodes was outside of the Capitol around this time as well.
Minuta filmed himself on a Facebook livestream on Jan. 6.
“It’s going down guys, it’s literally going down right now. Patriots storming the Capitol building. Fucking war in the streets right now. Word is they got in the building. Let’s go!” he said.
Minuta was one of the Oath Keepers assigned to “protect” Roger Stone, an ally to Trump with ties to the Oath Keepers as well as another far right neofascist group, the Proud Boys. During the Rhodes trial, Oath Keeper Rick Jackson of Georgia testified that he was part of a group of Oath Keepers assigned to protect Stone and that it was Minuta who arranged for a room at the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. on the eve of the insurrection. Minuta, Jackson, and Oath Keepers Joshua James, Brian Ulrich, and Mark Grods traveled together and took golf carts to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after Stone hurried out of Washington.
James and Ulrich have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. James has pleaded guilty to obstruction as well. Both agreed to cooperate with the government though neither testified during the Rhodes trial.
When Jackson faced questions about Minuta under cross-examination, he became cagey and had emotional outbursts as he would contradict himself. At times he could recognize Minuta in footage and at other times, he insisted he could not. The same went for what Jackson said he could or could not hear being said as the group sped off toward the Capitol.
Minuta was in the second stack with Ulrich and James and others, marching around from the building’s west side to its eastern flank before finally going up the east Capitol steps. Members of that stack notably traveled with an 82-pound German Shepherd known as “Warrior.”
According to the indictment, Minuta breached with members in the stack around 3:15 PM as he shouted at police to “get out of my Capitol.” As the Oath Keepers forced their way past officers, they were doused with pepper spray and were stopped from getting inside of the Rotunda. The entryway used by this stack was the same entry point used by the first stack roughly 30 minutes before.
Minuta pleaded not guilty and maintains he was inside the Capitol to “assist” police. That claim didn’t seem to hold much water with the jury in the Rhodes trial group. Three defendants in that group who found themselves inside the Capitol purportedly “helping police" were found guilty of conspiracy to prevent officials from discharging their duties. Ohio Oath Keeper Watkins admitted to impeding officers when she testified at trial. Prosecutors say footage shows police “placing their hands” on Minuta as they try to repel him. Once he approached the Rotunda with James, Minuta yelled: "This is what's bound to happen, just get out! Get out! Get these cops out! It's our fucking building! Get 'em out, get out!" A moment later, James would yank an officer by his vest toward the mob before the officer was successfully clawed back from the mob by a fellow police officer.
When he was inside the Capitol, an affidavit by an investigating FBI agent notes Minuta was frequently on his cell phone or had it clutched in his hand or pressed against his face. Prosecutors believe Minuta coordinated directly with Rhodes.
They spoke with relative frequency before Jan. 6. On Dec. 19, 2020, Minuta said of his boss: “Oath Keepers president is pretty disheartened. He feels like it's go time, the time for peaceful protest is over in his eyes. I was talking with him last night.”
Minuta was invited by Rhodes to join an Oath Keepers group text known as “DC OP Jan. 6 21” that included the now freshly convicted Meggs, Watkins, Harrelson, and others. Amid the superheated rhetoric and efforts to coordinate the seditious plot, Rhodes sent texts to that group urging that there was “no standard political or legal way out of this.”
The New Jersey resident filmed police on Jan. 6 as well. Other footage from inside the Capitol captured Minuta screaming at overrun officers: “All that’s left is the Second Amendment!”
Exactly one week after Jan. 6, Minuta deleted his Facebook account, FBI investigators found.
Joseph Hackett
Hackett, 51, faces charges of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, destruction of government property, and tampering with documents or proceedings.
Prosecutors say Hackett coordinated with Stewart Rhodes in the runup to Jan. 6 and participated in weapons and “gunfight” training with members of the group including Meggs, Meggs’ wife Connie, and Harrelson. The Florida-based chiropractor was allegedly one of the Oath Keepers who hauled firearms to a QRF hotel in Virginia.
According to court records, Hackett tried to cover up his communications with other Oath Keepers like Graydon Young by suggesting they take photos of their communications that would be written in cursive. In a text sent a little over two weeks before the Capitol assault, Hackett told Young he believed cursive would “eliminate digital reads.” Many messages extracted by law enforcement were about recruitment, Oath Keeper meetings, and operations planning.
Young pleaded guilty to conspiracy last year and testified against Rhodes last month.
Records show Hackett reserved a hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Washington from Jan. 5 to Jan. 7. Prosecutors allege this is where he and other Oath Keepers “readied themselves for battle” before heading to the Capitol.
Hackett was released from pretrial detention last summer and placed under house arrest. He was barred from using electronic devices including cell phones and laptops and was forced to surrender all of his weapons. At a court hearing last August, Hackett’s attorney called for his client’s release, arguing that he was no longer “radicalized” by the beliefs that led him astray on Jan. 6. Notably, his attorney emphasized that Hackett would be supervised at home by his wife. It was not until after the judge agreed to release him, however, that it was revealed by prosecutors that Hackett’s wife runs a political podcast featuring QAnon conspiracy theories and hefty praise for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene, like the Oath Keepers, has amplified far-right conspiracy theories as well as violence against political or ideological opponents. Hackett was barred from participating in his wife’s podcast.
Hackett, who prosecutors believe reported to Meggs, was often seen on surveillance footage being on his phone taking photos or video. Once inside, footage showed Hackett alongside Meggs, Harrelson, and co-defendant Moerschel. It was around 2:45 PM when Hackett left the Rotunda and took off toward the House of Representatives where Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is located. During the last trial, jurors heard extensive details about the violence Oath Keepers like Meggs and Rhodes wished to visit on Pelosi. Prosecutors say footage of Hackett from Jan. 6 show him “checking on” the doors where he and the stack first entered before meeting up with Oath Keepers that positioned themselves close to Pelosi’s office. He is seen talking to Meggs and Harrelson on security footage. He exited the Capitol around 2:54 PM.
An Oath Keeper who already pleaded guilty told the Justice Department last year that Hackett allegedly admitted to deleting content from his phone right after the Capitol attack.
David Moerschel
Moerschel, 44, faces six counts including seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, destruction of government property, and tampering with documents or proceedings.
Prosecutors allege Moerschel, of Punta Gorda, Florida, attended at least 17 GoToMeetings with Oath Keepers from Sept. 28, 2020 to Jan. 3, 2021, joining sessions labeled “DC planning call” and “Florida DC OP planning chat.” Meggs and Harrelson were organizers for some of these sessions, prosecutors say.
Investigators claim Moerschel joined the stack formation that went up the Capitol steps and inside the building less than 10 minutes after Meggs placed a call to Rhodes who was already on a call with another “ops leader” Michael Greene. It was never determined what was said on that call, but at his trial, prosecutors argued this was a moment Rhodes used to direct his foot soldiers on the ground.
Once Moerschel made it inside, he, Watkins, Hackett, and Meggs “paused and gathered in a circle” before moving ahead. Moerschel was one of several Oath Keepers on Jan. 6 who went in search of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Other footage, including some from the Comfort Inn in northern Virginia where members established a “quick reaction force,” allegedly show Moerschel wheeling a cart with at least one long gun onto an elevator.
Last June, the FBI recovered a flak vest belonging to Moerschel as well as a duffel bag that appeared to be the same duffel bag he carried into the hotel with firearms. Moerschel was arrested on July 6.
Edward Vallejo
Edward Vallejo, 63, faces charges of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties,
Proscutors allege Vallejo, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, was a point person at the QRF hotel stockpiled with weapons on Jan. 6. The Justice Department contends Vallejo stayed in regular contact with Rhodes and others as the Capitol assault got underway.
At 2:24 PM on Jan. 6, Vallejo text fellow Oath Keepers and told them he was “back at hotel and outfitted” and had “two trucks available” to assist.
“QRF standing by,” he wrote in group chat at 2:38 PM as the mob surged.
In his indictment, prosecutors note that Vallejo was asked to join a “DC OP Jan 6 21” group chat on Dec. 30, 2020 along with other Oath Keepers in more senior positions within the organization like Meggs. Exactly one day after he was added to the group, an Oath Keeper in Arizona alerted Rhodes via text that Vallejo and other were “coming to Washington, D.C.” with their own “technical equipment.” The Arizona crew would also have “rifles and man power,” the message stated.
Once in the area, Vallejo stayed in one of three rooms reserved at the QRF hotel in Virginia. He was joined at the hotel by Florida and North Carolina members where, prosecutors say, they guarded the massive weapons cache.
In the 48 hours before the insurrection, Vallejo corresponded with Meggs and Rhodes often, giving them updates about his location or next steps for members of the QRF. Once at the hotel. it was Vallejo who met defendants Meggs, Harrelson, Hackett, Moerschel, and Caldwell as they dropped off firearms, ammo, and other goods.
Vallejo waited at the Comfort Inn in Ballston, Virginia, on Jan. 6 and eagerly monitored the situation on the ground. That morning he appeared on the right-wing podcast Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock. During the show, Vallejo and fellow Arizona Oath Keeper Todd Kandaris lamented the “stolen election” and opined on what would come next.
When Kandaris suggested that armed conflict was the “only and obvious next step” to support Trump’s claims over the stolen election, Vallejo told the podcast host: “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, okay? And if they’re told fuck you, that’s going to be the declaration of guerilla war.”
Like Rhodes wished Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act so Oath Keepers could be raised to his side, Vallejo wished the same.
“I’m just praying Trump has his head on fucking straight and he knows what he’s doing,” Vallejo said on the morning of the assault. “He’s got the machinations behind him, he’s got all the proof in the world and he’s going to brick the fucking hammer down.”
He also said there were people in D.C. who were “prepared” and had “the will” and “the facilities to do more than taunt.”
The QRF, which prosecutors said was set up to Oath Keepers could ferry weapons and manpower into D.C. as needed, was ultimately never tapped. After the attack on the Capitol, Vallejo met with several Oath Keepers including Rhodes, James, and Rhodes’ girlfriend and Oath Keeper counsel Kellye SoRelle. SoRelle is also under indictment and faces four counts including conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding and obstruction of an official proceeding. Also joining them that night were Joe Harrington, Landon Bentley, and Kandaris.
The group met at an Olive Garden in Vienna, Virginia, and ran up a tab of over $400, Oath Keeper bank statements show. The conversation at dinner devolved from recounting and celebrating the day to an airing of increasingly paranoid concerns about being arrested, James said in his plea agreement.
That same night, Vallejo shot a text to members of the Oath Keepers leadership chat group and said he would be back in D.C. at 6 AM on Jan. 7.
“We got food for 30 days. We have only begun to fight,” Vallejo wrote.
He also promised to send Oath Keeper leaders “after action reports” dated Jan. 21, 2021, one day after now-President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Before sunrise on Jan. 7, Vallejo messaged Rhodes and others and told them he was going to “probe defense lines” in a city now locked down with National Guard in the wake of the insurrection. Five days later on Jan. 12, a member of the Arizona QRF messaged Rhodes to inform him that he and Vallejo were “excited to learn next steps and would like to know what we should be doing right now.”
Ahead of his trial, Vallejo was released to home confinement where he was forced to wear 24-hour GPS monitoring. His internet privileges were also cut. Though the presiding judge felt Vallejo’s alleged offenses were serious, a lack of criminal history and his involvement in a nonprofit assisting veterans known as Homefront Battle Buddies earned him some leniency.
Vallejo never went inside of the Capitol and has maintained his innocence, asserting he came to D.C. only to support Trump, not orchestrate or coordinate the Oath Keepers QRF. His attorney has argued that Vallejo was at the QRF in case he needed to assist injured people or Oath Keepers who wanted a ride out of D.C.
A week after the insurrection, he posted a message under his nonprofit’s Facebook account that seemed to suggest Vallejo viewed the FBI’s probe of Jan. 6 unseriously.
“We’ll my friends… I about to enter the Phoenix Field Office of the FBI to interrogate them regarding the January 6th affair. Wish me luck. Report to follow [two prayer hand emojis],” he wrote on Jan. 13.