Summary:
Prosecutors spent most of the day releasing encrypted messages between the group’s leaders. The group planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on January 6. Oath Keepers members say their trip was primarily focused on providing security for VIP attendees of Trump’s speech at the White House. They point out that despite a pro-Trump mob breaking into the Capitol, they never used such guns in Washington, D.C.
The AR-15 he brought with him and added to the arsenal, as well as a box of ammunition, were both displayed to the jury by Cummings.
In the second week of what is likely to be a six-week trial against Rhodes and four other people, Justice Department prosecutors spent most of the day releasing encrypted messages between Rhodes and the group’s regional leaders about making plans to travel to Washington on January 6. Many of the news said that they wanted to stop Joe Biden from becoming president and that they wanted Trump to use the Insurrection Act, which, according to Rhodes, would let them physically prevent Congress from recognizing the results of the 2020 election.
We American soldiers still have one effective trick up our sleeves. On December 14, 2020, Rhodes wrote to Georgia Oath Keepers about the beginning of the American Revolution. “It’s the same one Samuel Whitmore [sic] used long ago, right along with all the other farmers who fired the bullets heard around the world,” Rhodes wrote.
Brian Ulrich, a Georgia Oath Keeper who has since pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, said on December 20, 2020, in a message to the same Signal chat that only Trump’s help could stop widespread murder and chaos.
He wrote, “Trump acts now; perhaps a few hundred radicals perish trying to burn down towns. Millions of people die in opposition to the 1st and 2nd amendments while Trump sits on his hands and Biden wins.
The argument made by Rhodes and his co-defendants, Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell, is that their trip was primarily focused on providing security for VIP attendees of Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse and that their stash of weapons was intended to aid the group’s efforts if, on January 6, street violence broke out between protesters and counterprotesters. They point out that despite a pro-Trump mob breaking into the Capitol, they never used such guns in Washington, which has strong gun prohibitions.
Veteran Cummings, who is not being charged with any crimes related to January 6, said he went to Washington with Harrelson and Jason Dolan, who pleaded guilty last year for his role in the incident, to help with the group’s security duties. He said he had met the VIP whose safety he was in charge of, but he couldn’t remember her name. All he could say was that she looked like a “Hispanic woman.” While the Oath Keepers continued to march in her direction, they stayed at the northwest corner of the Capitol.
Cummings claimed that Meggs told him of the building’s “breach” at some point while the party marched toward the Capitol. He remembered that Meggs asked if the group should go into the Capitol or not.
After using a port-a-potty outside the Capitol, Cummings parted ways with the group and didn’t rejoin them until they had regrouped. He remembered Rhodes dismissing the police’s decision to start using tear gas against rioters.
Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network
