The seditious conspiracy trial of Oath Keeper ringleader Elmer Stewart Rhodes, and four of his Oath Keeper brethren, begins with jury selection in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Of all the charges brought in the Justice Department’s expansive criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, these are the most serious.
Rhodes, a resident of Granbury, Texas, will face jurors alongside co-defendants Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs, and Jessica Watkins. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, will preside.
The trial will stretch roughly five weeks as prosecutors make their case against the former leader of the extremist group and work to convince jurors that Rhodes, Caldwell, Harrelson, Meggs, and Watkins conspired to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021 by force.
For the charge of seditious conspiracy, Rhodes and his co-defendants could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2022 · 3:10:20 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman
Some quick updates from inside the courthouse today: There are 131 jurors still going through the selection process Tuesday as attorneys pore over a series of extended questions they had following the pool’s completion of a jury questionnaire two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Judge Mehta has denied a request from Rhodes to change venues from Washington, D.C. to nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Mehta told the defense today that the media markets were near identical given the proximity of Alexandria to the Capitol.
With the Jan. 6 committee scheduled to meet Wednesday, Judge Mehta instructed jurors on Tuesday not to watch it or anything else related to Capitol attack.
Rhodes is not accused of entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. Instead, prosecutors say the former Army paratrooper was on restricted ground as he oversaw a weaponized plot to stop President Joe Biden from taking office.
Nevertheless, the Justice Department says Rhodes had his finger placed firmly on the pulse of his fellow Oath Keeper’s movements on Jan. 6 as some forced their way inside the Capitol while others awaited his word nearby, guns in tow.
It was Rhodes’s leadership that his co-defendants followed on Jan. 6 and it was his plan, prosecutors say, to tap heavily armed “quick reaction force” teams stationed in nearby northern Virginia to attain the ultimate goal: stop President Joe Biden from taking office.
Prosecutors are expected to call on no less than 40 witnesses. Evidence will be pulled a number of sources including devices seized from Oath Keepers by law enforcement as well as security footage.
U.S. attorneys will argue that Rhodes, Caldwell, Harrelson, Meggs and Watkins planned the attack at the Capitol for weeks, even taking time to get battle-ready with paramilitary training courses ahead of the siege.
Meggs, Watkins, and Harrelson used that training on Jan. 6, prosecutors claim, when they made a stack formation with other Oath Keepers and forced their way up the mob-riddled Capitol steps and past lines of police protecting the Capitol and lawmakers inside.
Caldwell used his prowess as a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer and ex-FBI section chief to coordinate the attack, prosecutors allege. And it was Caldwell who allegedly told Rhodes weeks in advance that “heavy weapons” would be needed at the Capitol on Jan. 6 for Trump’s “wild protest.” This allegedly sparked the idea for “quick reaction force” teams.
At a pre-trial detention hearing last year, prosecutors highlighted too how Caldwell was in contact with other extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters before the insurrection. The FBI alleges defendant Kelly Meggs was also in contact with those groups, or at the very least, bragged about the “alliance” he helped organized between the Oath Keepers and extremist Proud Boys in a Facebook post issued on Dec. 19, 2020.
Notably, when police searched Caldwell’s home on Jan. 19, 2021, prosecutors say they turned up a “death list.” On it appeared the names Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two election workers in Georgia targeted by former President Donald Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories of widespread voter fraud in that state. Caldwell’s lawyers said it was a “doodle pad.”
Moss testified before the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol this summer and cried as she recounted the threats to her life, how she was forced to go into hiding and how, on one particularly terrifying night, Trump supporters tried to barge into her grandmother’s house to “make a citizen’s arrest.”
Jurors will hear evidence too about the alleged intent of Oath Keepers Meggs, Watkins and Harrelson. The Justice Department says the trio (along with other members of the far-right group who will go to trial later this year) searched for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi once inside the Capitol building.
Harrelson, Meggs, Watkins, Caldwell, and Rhodes are all over 40 years old, with Caldwell being the eldest of the group at 68. Meggs and Harrelson both headed up separate Florida chapters of the Oath Keepers organization. Watkins, an Army veteran, commanded a group in Ohio. Caldwell has denied being a member of the group.
Attorneys for the Oath Keeper defendants are expected to argue that the conduct on Jan. 6 was done in hopes of maintaining peace for Donald Trump should he invoke the Insurrection Act. The Justice Department recently dubbed this little more than a “ruse” used by Rhodes to give himself “legal cover.”
RELATED STORY: Before trial, Oath Keeper Rhodes makes final attempt to shape defense
RELATED STORY: The first Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial gets underway next week
This story is developing.
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