Investigators continue to ask cooperating members of the Oath Keepers who have pleaded guilty about their knowledge of any coordination with others.
Starting with jury selection Tuesday and opening statements as early as Thursday, Rhodes’s trial could
its hand in court about the Oath Keepers’ ties to other political figures, the trial is an important step in the wider probe, analysts said.Investigators continue to ask cooperating members of the Oath Keepers who have pleaded guilty about their knowledge of any coordination with others, according to defense attorneys.
Prosecutors plan to call as many as 40 witnesses over a projected five-week trial, draw from 800 statements by those charged and summarize tens of thousands of messages, hundreds of hours of video footage and hundreds of phone call, location and financial records, according to pretrial proceedings. Three Oath Keepers members have pleaded guilty to the seditious conspiracy charge and are among more than a dozen potential informants in the case, according to government filings.
“While the Oath Keepers might struggle to keep going, the people supporting its causes are still there, and the ideas that motivated them are still there,” Jensen said, adding, “This prosecution isn’t going to end anti-government militias in the United States.
The Justice Department failed the last time it brought such a case in 2010, when a federal judge dismissed seditious conspiracy charges against members of the self-described Hutaree militia in Michigan, citing a lack of proof that the group had firm plans to launch attacks. McQuade, then the U.S. attorney for eastern Michigan, defended the arrests at the time, saying investigators believed the group was on the verge of carrying out a deadly plot.
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