In dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Rhodes rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump and warned they might need to “rise up in insurrection.” &#…
By Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer | Associated Press
The riot was the opportunity the Oath Keepers had been preparing for, prosecutors in Rhodes’ criminal trial say. His followers quickly sprang into action, marching to the Capitol. They joined the crowd pushing into the building in a desperate plot to overturn the election that was sending Joe Biden to the White House in place of Trump, authorities allege.
The jury’s verdict may well address the false notion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, coming soon after 2022 midterm results in which voters rejected Trump’s chosen Republican candidates who supported his baseless claims of fraud. The outcome could also shape the future of the Justice Department’s massive and costly prosecution of the insurrection that some conservatives have sought to portray as politically motivated.
In dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Rhodes rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump and warned they might need to “rise up in insurrection.” The others on trial are Kelly Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida, and Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida. Seditious conspiracy carries up to 20 years behind bars, and all five defendants also face other felony charges. They would be the first people convicted of seditious conspiracy at trial since the 1995 prosecution of Islamic militants who plotted to bomb New York City landmarks.
Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper, said his followers were “stupid” for going inside. Rhodes, who was in a hotel room when he found out rioters were storming the Capitol, insisted that the Oath Keepers’ only mission for the day was to provide security for Trump ally Roger Stone and other figures at events before the riot.
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