More than three years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a Virginia school board member is facing several charges after federal prosecutors say he was caught on video entering the building and taking part in the disorder.
More than three years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a Virginia school board member is facing several charges after federal prosecutors say he was caught on video entering the building and taking part in the disorder.
Miles Adkins, 40, was arrested Tuesday and faces four charges, including entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating and or picketing inside a Capitol building.
Adkins is a member of the Frederick County School Board representing the Shawnee District, according to the school division’s website. Adkins told WTOP he was “not surprised at all” by the charges against him and believes the Jan. 6 charges are politically motivated.
“It’s an election year,” he said. “We see how the DOJ has weaponized against people that lean more right than center.”
Charging documents say Adkins was one of the first to enter the Capitol and “helped an individual enter the U.S. Capitol building through a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door.”
Miles Adkins (yellow circle) helping a rioter enter through a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door. (Courtesy United States District Courts)
Open-source videos cited in court documents show Adkins walking around the Capitol, drinking alcohol and chanting at some points. The charging documents also say he bragged on Facebook about being in the Capitol that day, telling friends he drank a Fireball and Coors Lite inside the building.
When speaking to WTOP, Adkins maintains that he was exercising his right to freedom of speech and protest.
“I don’t regret exercising my First Amendment right,” Adkins said. “I don’t condone any of the violence that happened in there.”
During the investigation, Adkins first told the FBI he went to D.C. to hear then-President Donald Trump speak and then followed a large group to the Capitol, alleging there were no barriers for entry. He also told investigators that he had traveled to the District before Jan. 6 to act as an escort for members of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing extremist group.
The Washington Post reports Adkins has faced calls to resign from the school board. In the interview with WTOP, Adkins said he will not be leaving his position, adding that he and current board members try to keep it as “nonpartisan” as possible.
“I’m not going to be bullied out of this position, I was duly elected here, we’ve gotten a lot done,” he said. “We brought transparency back to the parents, before you couldn’t watch the videos (of meetings) without getting a FOIA request. Now, you can watch the meetings livestreamed.”
Screenshot from an open-source video of Miles Adkins chanting and demonstrating in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol. (Courtesy United States District Courts)
The Post reported that parents have also complained about past controversies involving Adkins, including posting a video on Facebook showing other members of the board with devil horns and Adolf Hitler-style mustaches after they voted for a mask requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adkins told WTOP he has apologized for the video, stating it was posted by a parent that he also believes was exercising her right to free speech.Developing story,
When it comes to racially insensitive social media posts that also resurfaced from before he was on the school board, Adkins said those were “personal mistakes” and he hopes students can learn from him.
“What I do on the board has always been student-first, student-focused,” Adkins said. “That does show students out there that, you know, when you make mistakes, own up to it, atone for it, and then, you know, move on.”
Adkins is scheduled to appear in D.C. District Court again next week.
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A second Trump term would validate the violent ideologies of far-right extremists—and allow them to escape legal jeopardy.
Matt Huynh
Editor’s Note: This article is part of “If Trump Wins,” a project considering what Donald Trump might do if reelected in 2024.
Until the veryend of his presidency, Donald Trump’s cultivation of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other violent far-right groups was usually implicit. He counted on their political support but stopped short of asking them to do anything.
But in the weeks after November 3, 2020, his language became more direct. He named the place and occasion for a “big protest”—on January 6, 2021, when Congress would be certifying his election loss—and told supporters, “Be there, will be wild!” When that day arrived, Trump told the assembled crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” With that, the president of the United States embraced violence as the natural extension of Americans’ democratic differences, and he has not stopped since.
Trump continues to lash out at his perceived enemies. Yet Americans have mostly been able to treat Trump’s extremism as background noise. That’s partly because he’s no longer in office, and partly because he’s no longer using Twitter. But it’s also because the legal counteroffensive against pro-Trump extremism, along with a proliferation of court proceedings holding Trump himself to task for his misdeeds, appears to have given his fans reason to think twice before committing crimes on his behalf.
Extremism ebbs and flows. Violent groups can grow only when they can raise money and recruit members faster than law enforcement can shut down their operations. They thrive when they are perceived to be winning; even the kind of person who might be drawn to violence makes a calculation about whether taking part in a plot to, say, overthrow an election or kidnap the governor of Michigan will be worth the risk. In the past few years, Trump’s election loss and his legal woes have made him less persuasive in this regard.
Trump now faces both state and federal conspiracy charges for his efforts to stay in power despite losing the election. Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have received long prison sentences for their role in the violence of January 6. Fox News, which knowingly broadcast false statements about faulty voting machines rather than offend its pro-Trump core audience, agreed to a defamation settlement of nearly $800 million with Dominion Voting Systems. All of these proceedings have demonstrated that Trump and his supporters will be held accountable for what they do and say.
But if Trump wins another term, both he and his most disreputable supporters will feel vindicated. The Republican Party has already given Trump a pass for exhorting a mob to break into the Capitol. In turn, Trump has promised to pardon many of the January 6 insurrectionists. His forgiveness could extend to extremist leaders convicted on federal charges.
Federalism, to be sure, would be a check on his power. Trump’s followers, like Trump himself, may still be subject to state prosecution. But a president with firm control of the Justice Department, who wields a corps of supporters willing to use intimidation for political ends and who has maintained a considerable following among police, could overwhelm the ability of state institutions to uphold the law.
Trump’s bullying of military leaders, journalists, and judges was never merely the ranting of an attention seeker, and that behavior—backed by the credible threat of violence from radicalized supporters—will likely become even more central to his governing style. “The extremism won’t be some side group,” Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard professor who studies political violence, told me. “It won’t be like a terror group against the state. The conditions will be different. It will be embedded into state institutions, and into the orientation of the state against perceived opponents.”
What’s clear is that a restored Trump would have a winning narrative in which right-wing extremism, after suffering some legal setbacks during the Biden interregnum, thrives again.
This article appears in the January/February 2024 print edition with the headline “Extremists Emboldened.”
The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a seditious conspiracy to disrupt the electoral count, the stiffest punishment to date to stem from the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. What do you think?
“Well, at least he overthrew the government.”
Fiona Lassetter, Seaweed Artisan
Body Language Fact: Did You Know?
“Strange considering that Trump is still secretly the president.”
Ivan Winter, Unemployed
“Luckily, he’ll be out in time for the 2042 insurrection.”
Jessica Watkins, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in federal prison for her role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Her sentencing comes one day after Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
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Oath Keepers leader sentenced to 18 years in prison for sedition, conspiracy, and other crimes; Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin on her record-breaking 88th world cup win
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John Dickerson reports on the 18-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, the Supreme Court’s decision to weaken the EPA’s power over wetlands, and how airlines are expected to handle the Memorial Day weekend rush.
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A federal judge sentenced Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison for sedition, conspiracy, and other crimes during and leading up to the insurrection on Jan. 6. Scott MacFarlane reports.
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The Justice Department is seeking 25 years in prison for Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a violent plot to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House, according to court papers filed Friday.
A Washington, D.C., jury convicted Rhodes in November in one of the most consequential cases brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters assaulted police officers, smashed windows and temporarily halted Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.
The sentencing recommendations come a day after jurors in a different case convicted four leaders of another extremist group, the Proud Boys — including former national chairman Enrique Tarrio — of seditious conspiracy. The Proud Boys were accused of a separate plot to forcibly keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
Jurors found Rhodes plotted an armed rebellion with members of his far-right extremist group to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden.
Prosecutors asked the judge to go above the standard sentencing guidelines, arguing the crimes deserve a longer sentence for terrorism because the goal was to influence the government through intimidation or coercion. They also argued Rhodes has not accepted responsibility for his actions, “still presents a threat to American democracy and lives and does not believe he has done anything wrong.”
In addition to seditious conspiracy, Rhodes was convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory. Each charge calls for up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences ranging from 10 to 21 years for eight other Oath Keepers defendants convicted at trials. The Justice Department asked for 21 years behind bars for Kelly Meggs, the Florida chapter leader convicted of the sedition charge alongside Rhodes.
“These defendants were prepared to fight. Not for their country, but against it. In their own words, they were ‘willing to die’ in a ‘guerilla war’ to achieve their goal of halting the transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential Election,” prosecutors wrote in the nearly 200-page court filing.
Rhodes is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25. Rhodes’ attorneys haven’t yet filed papers indicating how much time they will ask the judge to impose. They have vowed to appeal his conviction.
Prosecutors built their case around dozens of encrypted messages and other communications in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 that showed Rhodes rallying his followers to fight to defend Trump and warning they might need to “rise up in insurrection” to defeat Biden if Trump didn’t act.
Hundreds of people have been convicted in the attack that left dozens of officers injured and sent lawmakers running for their lives. But Rhodes and Meggs were the first Jan. 6 defendants to be convicted at trial of seditious conspiracy.
“These defendants stand out among January 6 defendants because they not only joined in this horrific attack on our democracy as it unfolded, but they all took steps, in advance of January 6, to call for and prepare for such an attack,” prosecutors wrote.
Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper, didn’t go inside the Capitol. Taking the witness stand at trial, he insisted there was no plan to attack the Capitol and said the Oath Keepers who did acted on their own. Rhodes said the Oath Keepers’ only mission that day was to provide security for Trump ally Roger Stone and other figures at events before the riot.
Three other defendants on trial with Rhodes and Meggs were acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but convicted of obstructing Congress, which also carries up to 20 years in prison. Another four Oath Keepers were convicted of the sedition charge during a second trial.
Jurors in Rhodes’ case saw video of his followers wearing combat gear and shouldering their way through the crowd in military-style stack formation before forcing their way into the Capitol.
Rhodes spent thousands of dollars on an AR-platform rifle, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment on his way to Washington ahead of the riot, prosecutors told jurors. Prosecutors said Oath Keepers stashed weapons for “quick reaction force” teams prosecutors said were ready to get weapons into the city quickly if they were needed. The weapons were never deployed.
The trial revealed new details about Rhodes’ efforts to pressure Trump to fight to stay in the White House in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6. Shortly after the election, in a group chat that included Stone, Rhodes wrote, “So will you step up and push Trump to FINALLY take decisive action?”
Another man testified that after the riot, Rhodes tried to persuade him to pass along a message to Trump that urged the president not to give up his fight to hold onto power. The intermediary — a man who told jurors he had an indirect way to reach the president — recorded his meeting with Rhodes and went to the FBI instead of giving the message to Trump.
During that meeting, Rhodes said they “should have brought rifles” on Jan. 6.
Four members of the far right Oath Keepers group were convicted of seditious conspiracy Monday, found guilty of using force to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Defendants Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo were accused of conspiring with other members of the militia group, including founder Stewart Rhodes, to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 Electoral College votes. Three were accused of being in a military-type stack that entered the Capitol. Vallejo was accused of helping to store weapons and equipment in a Virginia hotel.
After deliberating for three days, a Washington, D.C., jury delivered the verdict, which included convictions on other charges for conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement.
Minuta, Hackett and Moreschel were acquitted of lesser counts including destruction of government property and tampering with evidence.
The conviction comes just months after prosecutors successfully rendered a guilty verdict for the sedition charge against Rhodes and another codefendants.
Defense attorneys have argued the seditious conspiracy claim is extreme and that there was no explicit plan to carry out the crimes alleged by prosecutors.
In all, six of nine Jan. 6 defendants who have gone to trial on the seditious conspiracy count have been convicted by a jury.
Four members of the far-right Proud Boys group are currently on trial for the same charge.
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An outbreak of severe weather brings heavy snow, rain and tornadoes to parts of the United States. Also, for the first time in decades, two people are convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government in a plot ending with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener.
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John Dickerson reports on Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes being convicted of seditious conspiracy, the dangerous tornado threat for the South, and the U.S. win against Iran in the World Cup.
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A federal jury found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Scott MacFarlane has the details.
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Founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group Stewart Rhodes and codefendant Kelly Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack on Tuesday — the most serious charges any defendants have faced in the wake of the riot.
Three other codefendants, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell, were acquitted on the seditious conspiracy charge but found guilty of other crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack.
Rhodes and Meggs now face a maximum of 20 years in prison on the charges.
Rhodes’ attorney James Lee Bright said the defendants thanked the judge but they were disappointed in the verdict and plan to appeal.
Prosecutors alleged the defendants planned ahead of the Capitol attack to oppose the presidential transition in favor of unlawfully keeping Trump in office, seizing the joint Congress’ certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 as “means to that end.”
They made the historic decision to oppose the peaceful transfer using “any means necessary,” attempting to upend centuries of lawful presidential transfers, government attorneys argued.
During approximately eight weeks of testimony — plagued by delays that included a Rhodes’ COVID diagnosis — the jury of Washington, D.C. residents witnessed a legal battle between prosecutors and defense attorneys over whether the actions and words of the defendants were seditious calls to action or hyperbolic “bravado.”
FILE – Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017.
Susan Walsh / AP
Government witnesses — including former members of the Oath Keepers group, federal investigators, and law enforcement officers who served on Jan. 6, 2021 — testified that as soon as the presidential election had been decided in Mr. Biden’s favor, Rhodes and his associates worked to oppose the lawful transfer of power, talking of civil war and ultimately amassing weapons in a Virginia hotel room before some headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and breached the building.
Prosecutors presented evidence including encrypted chat messages, recorded meetings, and social media posts at trial to support its argument that the defendants had made detailed plans to head to Washington, D.C., ahead of Jan. 6. Government lawyers alleged those plans included coordinating movements and even “executing” traitors. This was not mere rhetoric, they argued. It was dangerous action.
A Yale Law School graduate, Rhodes was the alleged leader of the conspiracy, prosecutors said, calling him the “architect” of the plan who penned open letters to Trump urging him to try to hold onto power. Rhodes, in a letter and subsequent communications called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a centuries-old law that called for the armed defense of the government by a militia.
In the months before the Jan. 6 attack, prosecutors alleged Rhodes’ rhetoric grew more desperate and violent, calling on Trump to invoke the act to enable an armed resistance against a rogue government.
“It will be 1776 all over again,” Rhodes allegedly wrote in an Oath Keepers leadership message group. “Force on force is the way to go.” He was not accused of actually entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump never invoked the act and none of the defendants were accused of weapons crimes, which were two key defenses employed throughout the trial.
Two former members of the Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty to charges related to the attack told the jury that they were participants in the alleged conspiracy. Jason Dolan, a member of the Florida contingent, testified he was ready to “take up arms and fight back” against a rogue government and Graydon Young, also from Florida, said that he and three of the defendants who entered the Capitol saw themselves as participants in a “Bastille-type moment,” a “momentous” event in the history of an unfolding revolution.
Rhodes testified that he believed the 2020 election was “unconstitutional,” but he also claimed that there was no plan to actually enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, another key explanation employed by all defendants.
A third one-time member of the far-right Oath Keepers told the jury that he had been led to believe that Rhodes had the phone number belonging to a U.S. Secret Service agent and that Rhodes had been in contact with that individual in the months before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
John Zimmerman, a former member of the North Carolina chapter of the militia group and a military veteran, testified that Rhodes told him of the alleged connection with the agent during a September 2020 phone call between Rhodes and the individual who Zimmerman thought was the Secret Service agent ahead of a Trump rally in Fayetteville, N.C. The U.S. Secret Service said it is “aware” that individuals from the Oath Keepers had contacted them but they were not aware of any allegations of criminal wrongdoing among their ranks connected to the Rhodes case.
“[I]t is not uncommon for various organizations to contact us concerning security restrictions and activities that are permissible in proximity to our protected sites,” a Secret Service statement said at the time of Zimmerman’s testimony.
The defendants all argued they were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, to provide security to high-profile, pro-Trump attendees at various rallies and render first aid to protesters when needed. Evidence presented both before and during the trial revealed the Oath Keepers did act as security details to Trump-allied figures like Roger Stone and attended multiple pro-Trump rallies before the election.
Stanley Woodward, Meggs’ attorney, told the jury they did not condone what happened on Jan. 6, but disputed the government’s interpretation of events.
“What happened to the Capitol building is abhorrent, but these defendants are not charged with causing the events of Jan. 6,” Woodward argued.
Watkins was one of three defendants who chose to take the stand. She testified that while she was “just another idiot” inside the Capitol that day — admitting to entering the building and interfering with law enforcement — she was not part of a conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification.
Another defendant who decided to testify, 68-year-old Caldwell, dismissed incendiary communications prosecutors said he sent in the days surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as “goofy” and told jurors he played no role in the riot.
Prosecutors confronted the military veteran with some of his most violent messages from the time, discussing topics like “hunting” ANTIFA, whether Oath Keepers had the ability to burn down Congress “if [they] had wanted to,” and “executing some traitors,” all of which Caldwell tried to explained away.
Like Rhodes, Caldwell was not accused of actually entering the Capitol building during the breach.
Meggs and Harrelson, both of Florida, were allegedly key actors who led the formation of a military-style “stack” with Watkins and others as they breached the Capitol. Although they did not take the witness stand during trial, their defense attorneys contended they were not part of a conspiracy, but instead, a loose organization of like-minded veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C., to provide protection services and exercise the right to protest.
Prosecutors told the jury the defendants who testified “lied to your face” with the explanations of their actions leading up to Jan. 6 and attempted to sterilize their conduct, a claim the jury agreed with.
The defendants were “leaders” of a conspiracy to oppose the peaceful transfer of power, and the Jan. 6 Capitol breach was a means to that end, the government said. The alleged conspiracy, the government argued in its closing statement, was born of the defendants’ “sense of entitlement that led to frustration, followed by rage and then violence.”
Jan. 6 was not the culmination of the Oath Keepers’ alleged conspiracy, but a component of a larger plan to oppose Biden’s presidency that did not end with the certification of the electoral college votes. Caldwell and Rhodes were accused of discussing future plans of rebellion with others.
Rhodes’ legal team urged the jury to look at the defendants’ records as military veterans and law-abiding gun owners.
“They engaged themselves legally for 13 years,” said James Lee Bright. By the time the 2020 election came around, he said, they had a “deep-seated fear” for the future of the country, one that ultimately led them to Washington, D.C.
Bright said in closing arguments that the Justice Department had not met its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt “the big three” crimes alleged: “No plan to storm the Capitol … No plan to breach the rotunda … No plan to stop the certification of the electors,” he argued.
Other defense attorneys presented evidence that the Capitol building was already breached by the time the Oath Keepers arrived and the defendants entered unimpeded.
Watkins’ attorney Jonathan Crisp characterized what he said was the prosecution’s selective use of the evidence at trial as “reprehensible” and argued for context. Bradford Geyer, who represented Harrelson, said the evidence did not meet the government’s burden, urging the jury, “If the video doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” And Caldwell’s attorney, David Fischer, urged the jury to clear his client’s name.
Defense witnesses included neighbors and friends of some defendants, as well as certain FBI agents and experts questioned on their investigatory processes. Others, including individuals connected to the Oath Keepers, were meant to testify in the defendants’ favor, but ultimately did not due to an illness in one case and concerns of exposure to potential criminal liability in the other.
One associate of Rhodes, Michael Greene, waived his Fifth Amendment right aginst self-incrimination and opted to testify in Rhodes’ defense, contending that he was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and knew of no plan to enter the Capitol. Greene faces felony charges stemming from the Capitol breach.
Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the weeks-long trial, will not set a sentencing hearing.
Mehta will soon have to preside over a second seditious conspiracy trial for the defendants’ alleged co-conspirators, accused of taking part in the plan to oppose the peaceful transfer of power and entering the Capitol building in another “stack” formation.
The Oath Keepers defendants are one of two groups accused of seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge so far alleged in the Justice Department’s probe. Members of the Proud Boys, including leader Enrique Tarrio, will stand trial next month after being charged with that and other alleged crimes.
As testimony concluded last week, Mehta told the defense attorneys and prosecutors alike they should be “proud” of how they conducted themselves throughout the historic and high-profile proceedings.
“You have done more to demonstrate to the American people how our government works and how it is supposed to run in ways that I don’t think you all appreciate,” Mehta said.
The FBI calls the Oath Keepers an anti-government militia with current and former law enforcement and military members among its members. 60 Minutes profiles the group, which has become a central focus in the ongoing investigation of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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The FBI calls the Oath Keepers an anti-government militia with current and former law enforcement and military members among its members. 60 Minutes profiles the group, which has become a central focus in the ongoing investigation of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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In a tense, head-to-head exchange with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, prosecutors used Rhodes’ own words from texts, speeches and interviews to suggest to the jury that the militia leader misled them when he testified he was unaware of other members’ activities on January 6, 2021, and was appalled by the violence that day.
In his two-day testimony, Rhodes told the jury that he wasn’t involved in the specifics of planning for January 6, and that he had no knowledge of plans for the so-called quick reaction force that the group set up in Virginia to quickly move weapons into Washington, as prosecutors have alleged.
Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy, however, showed the jury Signal messages in which Rhodes told other members that “We WILL have a QRF” on January 6 because “this situation calls for it” and was part of group messages where members shared photographs of routes the QRF could use to enter the city.
“The buck stopped with you in this operation,” Rakoczy said to Rhodes, reading the leader’s messages aloud.
“I’m responsible for everything everyone else did?” Rhodes responded.
“You’re in charge, right?” Rakoczy said.
“Not if they do something off mission,” he shot back.
“That’s convenient,” Rakoczy said, smiling.
The militia leader also told prosecutors that he “hoped to avoid” conflict and was only concerned about a civil war breaking out after Joe Biden became president – leading to a chiding question from Rakoczy about how “the civil war will be on [January] 21st and not on the sixth?”
“I don’t condone the violence that happened” on January 6, Rhodes testified. “Anyone who did assault a police officer that day should be prosecuted for it.”
Rakoczy pointed to statements Rhodes made in a secretly recorded conversation in the days after January 6 where he said he wished the Oath Keepers had brought rifles to the Capitol that day.
“If he’s not going to do the right thing, and he’s just going to let himself be removed illegally, then we should have brought rifles,” Rhodes said in the recording prosecutors again played for the jury.
“We could have fixed it right then and there,” Rhodes said of the Capitol attack, according to the recording. “I’d hang f**king Pelosi from the lamppost.”
After playing the recording, Rakoczy asked Rhodes, “That’s what you said four days after the assault at the Capitol, right?”
“Yeah, after a couple drinks and I was pissed off,” Rhodes testified.
Rhodes and the other four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the seditious conspiracy charges.
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers who prosecutors say called for a “bloody revolution” to keep then-President Donald Trump in power, painted himself as an anti-racist Libertarian who believed the 2020 election was unconstitutional as he testified in his own defense on Friday.
The courtroom was packed during his testimony, and Rhodes choked up several times discussing his family, suicide rates among veterans and other subjects highlighted by his lawyer, Phillip Linder. He spoke directly to the jury and appeared very comfortable on the stand.
Rhodes explained to the jury that he didn’t believe either Trump or Joe Biden won in 2020 because the election itself was “unconstitutional.”
“I believe the election was unconstitutional, and that made it invalid,” Rhodes testified. “You really can’t have a winner of an unconstitutional election.”
Rhodes told the jury that, as he saw it, election laws in several states were changed by “executive fiat” and not through the state legislature.
“In multiple states especially in the swing states … you had them putting in new rules in direct violation” of state laws, Rhodes said.
“Everyone kept focusing on the computers” and other theories of voter fraud, Rhodes said, instead of the constitutional issues, which they needed to discuss before figuring out “whether there’s fraud on the ground.”
Rhodes did not detail any specific laws that were changed. CNN has found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Prosecutors have alleged that Rhodes wanted Trump to remain in power and that the militia leader supported a “bloody revolution” to secure the presidency.
Rhodes told the jury Friday how he was honorably discharged from the military and went on to study law at Yale, focusing his attention on the Bill of Rights – which Rhodes called “the crown jewel of our Constitution” – and protecting civilian rights in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Rhodes, a self-described Libertarian, testified that he founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 to “reach, change and inspire” people about what rights the Constitution afforded them.
Pushing back on what he saw as narratives that the Oath Keepers were racist or white nationalists, Rhodes said the organization traveled to various cities for racial justice protests, claiming the group protected “minority business owners” in Ferguson, Missouri.
“Frankly we kind of embarrassed the police, Rhodes testified, “because we showed them how to do it right, protecting the business owners while still respecting the rights of the protesters.”
Oath Keepers rules, Rhodes claimed, specifically bar any member who “advocates for the overthrow of the United States.”
During the first several weeks of the seditious conspiracy trial against the far-right organization, prosecutors presented evidence that the Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons at a hotel in Virginia on January 6 as part of a so-called quick reaction force. Prosecutors alleged that the five defendants intended to use those weapons in case called upon by Trump to stop the transfer of power to Biden.
Rhodes told the jury that wasn’t the case and claimed that the QRF’s were set up at an event the Oath Keepers attended to “respond in case there is an emergency,” including if his men were ever injured.
The Oath Keepers also used QRFs every time they provided security, Rhodes said, including several events in Washington, DC. After the election, Rhodes testified he was concerned Antifa would “attack the White House,” and claimed the leftist organization was threatening to “drag Trump out” if the president refused to concede.
In November, “I was concerned that this might actually happen,” Rhodes told the jury, citing his rhetoric on a recorded meeting prosecutors showed the jury in which Rhodes allegedly said that “there’s going to be a fight.”
If Antifa did try to attack the White House, Rhodes said that “President Trump could use the Insurrection Act, declare this an insurrection, and use myself and other veterans to protect the White House.”
No such attack at the White House occurred.
Rhodes is expected to continue his testimony on Monday.
Washington — A member of the far-right Oath Keepers told a jury on Tuesday that he traveled to Washington, D.C., and stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s election win.
“I threw my rifle and pistol in the car…and ultimately ended up on the steps of the Capitol, moving into the Capitol building, to try and stop Congress from certifying [Biden’s presidency],” Jason Dolan testified during the trial of five Oath Keepers — including founder Stewart Rhodes — who stand accused of conspiring to use force to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Dolan, a former member of the militia group’s Florida contingent, was called as a government witness after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstructing Congress’ work, admitting to entering the Capitol and being part of the mob that drove members of Congress from performing their duty. As part of his plea deal, Dolan agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the breach, including in cases that deal directly with those whom he once called fellow group members.
“I helped coordinate. I helped plan,” Dolan admitted on the stand Tuesday, “I talked about my desire and I guess wanting to stop what I saw as an illegitimate government … [from] taking power.”
Members of the Oath Keepers on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
The admitted rioter-turned-government witness offered new insight into the planning, coordination, and motivation behind the Oath Keepers’ alleged participation in the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and codefendants Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell are accused of spearheading that fight. All have pleaded not guilty and their defense attorneys maintain their clients were in Washington, D.C. to serve as security and emergency responders that day.
Dolan did not meet the group’s leader until after the attack. But he testified that Rhodes spoke of the need to take action should then-President Donald Trump invoke a centuries-old law known as the Insurrection Act and call on the Oath Keepers to join his fight to stay in power. And if Trump failed them, Dolan testified, the group was prepared to take matters into their own hands.
They had to be “willing to fight back against an illegitimate government and support what we saw as the rightful president against an illegitimate president,” Dolan said.
“We were preparing for a trip to D.C.,” he recalled, admitting some memories might not be perfectly clear. “If need be, then to take up arms and fight back because that’s what we have been talking about.”
Dolan described the group’s alleged willingness to fight not as an explicit call to action, but as the implicit “tenor” of their conversations. “We have to fight back … it was a feeling,” he said.
Dolan is the first member of the Oath Keepers to plead guilty to committing crimes on Jan. 6 to testify as a witness at the seditious conspiracy trial, which is now in its third week. Other Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty could testify in the coming days.
“How would you fight?” asked prosecutor Jeffrey Nester.
“Any way we could,” Dolan answered.
Under cross examination by defense lawyers later, on Wednesday, Dolan told the jury that he never received operational orders for Jan. 6, that is, there had been no explicit direction from anyone to carry out a plan to oust an “illegitimate government.”
Motivated by his desire to support Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud – “It didn’t seem possible that he was going to lose,” he said Tuesday. Dolan testified that he had traveled to Washington, D.C., with his firearms and a group that included defendant Kenneth Harrelson.
He said he deposited his guns in a Virginia hotel room to avoid breaking Washington, D.C.’s strict firearms laws days before the attack and later made his way into the capital city on Jan. 6. Dolan testified that it was his understanding that the group would either return to their hotels to obtain their weapons or have them delivered to D.C. should the need arise.
“If President Trump declared the Insurrection Act, we would be working alongside or with pro-government forces against what we saw as anti-government forces,” Dolan said, describing the anti-government forces as being “pro-Biden.” The witness explained that he had little knowledge of the arcane law that was so central to the alleged conspiracy he was describing and instead relied on the direction of Rhodes and others.
The call from Trump never came.
Once at the Capitol, Dolan said he noticed a change in the crowd as the Trump supporters realized then-Vice President Mike Pence was not going to assist in Trump’s effort to overturn the election.
“I was pissed. You could almost feel the crowd change. The crowd was pissed,” he described.
If anything was to stop the election certification, Dolan said, that crowd would have been it.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors had yet to provide ample evidence that the Oath Keepers’ plans for Jan. 6 actually involved storming the Capitol itself — an apparent vulnerability upon which defense attorneys seized during cross-examinations. But Dolan’s testimony offered some of the first allegations that the group was at the Capitol to halt the peaceful transfer of power.
“I wanted them to stop the certification of the election,” Dolan said as Nestler showed the jury videos of the Oath Keepers inside the Capitol, some members of the mob yelling “treason.”
“I had been betrayed and I wanted them to hear and feel the anger, the frustration, the rage that I felt.”
Dolan, who said he now faces between five and seven years in prison for his admitted crimes, testified that although he did not receive any promises from the government for his testimony, he hoped his work on the stand would push prosecutors to recommend a less jail time Judge Amit Mehta on his behalf. Mehta is the presiding judge in both Dolan’s case and the trial currently underway.
After he exited the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Dolan said he saw Meggs and Rhodes outside, his first in-person encounter with the group’s founder.
“Looking back on it, I think I was pretty naive, downright stupid with some of my decisions. I’m thankful that — President Trump at the time didn’t do something like invoke the Insurrection Act because I think … there would have been a lot of violence had he,” Dolan reflected.
Tuesday’s proceedings also included testimony from U.S. Capitol Police Captain Ronald Ortega, a veteran of the force who described the events of Jan. 6 from his perspective.
In the morning, Mehta informed the legal teams that one juror had tested positive for COVID-19 and was therefore excused from service. One of the four alternate jurors selected at the beginning of the trial filled the seat and Mehta said the court both tested the jurors and polled them to ensure all felt comfortable continuing to go on with the proceedings.
John Woolley and Keshia Butts contributed to this report.
Washington — As the high-profile Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy trial entered its third week on Monday, an FBI special agent testified that members of the far-right group worked to amass weapons and store them in a Washington, D.C.-area hotel in the days leading up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors alleged that the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, traveled from his home state of Texas to Washington, D.C., stopping multiple times along the way to purchase weapons and ammunition, according to bank records presented to the jury in court.
Rhodes and his associates Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell stand accused of multiple crimes stemming from their alleged involvement in the events of Jan. 6, including seditious conspiracy, the most serious crime so far alleged in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation. The five defendants have all pleaded not guilty and, although none are actually accused of weapons crimes, the alleged amassing of an arsenal outside the D.C. city limits is key to the government’s case.
Rhodes and Caldwell are not accused of entering the Capitol. Meggs, Watkins and Harrelson allegedly formed a military-style “stack” to breach the building, according to the government. Their defense teams say the group was in D.C. largely to provide security to high-profile members of Trump’s orbit.
During testimony from FBI agent Sylvia Hilgeman, prosecutors showed security camera footage from inside a Comfort Inn in Ballston, Virginia, where some of the defendants and their associates, some of whom have been charged and others who haven’t, allegedly planned for Jan. 6.
The videos showed members of the Oath Keepers, like Harrelson and Meggs, inside the hotel as large containers, which investigators allege held weapons, were brought into the hotel — some on luggage carts, others in duffel bags.
The weapons never entered Washington, D.C. — prosecutors concede the Oath Keepers were cognizant of the city’s firearms laws — but the government contends that the group amassed the weapons as part of an armed Quick Reaction Force, or QRF, designed to respond to Washington, D.C. if called into action.
For his part, as Rhodes traveled from to the D.C. area, allegedly amassing weapons along the way, text messages displayed at trial revealed sexually-explicit communications between Rhodes and Oath Keepers attorney-turned Jan. 6 defendant Kellye SoRelle. Prosecutors contend the two had a personal relationship and defense attorneys have so far unsuccessfully argued SoRelle’s position as attorney barred her messages from the evidentiary records. SoRelle is charged with multiple counts related to the Jan. 6 attack and pleaded not guilty.
Once in the Washington, D.C. area, the Oath Keepers allegedly prepared to take action. In a podcast on the morning of Jan. 6, Edward Vallejo – a member from Arizona also charged with seditious conspiracy and set to go on trial next month – spoke of resorting to “guerilla war,” according to recordings played at trial, advocating for Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and take a stand against the incoming Biden presidency.
Vallejo was heard saying that Trump needed to take action, adding, “If that doesn’t happen, then sh** is on.” Vallejo is accused of preparing the QRF leading up to the attack.
FBI agent Hilgeman’s testimony also advanced the government’s theory of the case, that the the storming of the Capitol was only the beginning, part of a larger seditious plan to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. Defense attorneys are contending the Capitol breach was the final event, devoid of any larger conspiracy.
Under cross-examination, Hilgeman told defense attorneys that she believed the allegedly armed QRF was not necessarily meant for the Capitol itself, but to occupy the city and prevent Joe Biden from ever becoming president, “whatever form that took.”
Hilgeman said Caldwell talked of sending a boat full of weapons across the Potomac River from their Virginia hotel to the Capitol, if necessary.
Seizing on the fact that none of the Oath Keepers are accused of bringing guns into Washington, D.C., Rhodes’ attorney Philip Linder asked the agent, “The armed rebellion was unarmed?”
“The armed rebellion wasn’t over,” Hilgeman responded, acknowledging the government’s contention that the Oath Keepers planned to continue their resistance after the events of Jan. 6.
And when asked by another defense attorney if Biden’s impending presidency was the impetus for the Oath Keepers’ presence in D.C. that day, Hilgeman responded by recalling her recollection of Rhodes’ own words that if Trump failed to act, “we will.”
