More relevant to the party:
At trial, Oath Keeper alleges specific plan to stop vote count
Two years later, Berry, 21, testified in federal court in D.C. against
four fellow members of the Oath Keepers facing charges of seditious conspiracy — the second such group to go on trial.
Going further than other cooperators, Berry testified this week that the extremists hatched an explicit plan to enter the Capitol and stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory — which could be a boon to prosecutors case.
But he also acknowledged he was not always truthful with investigators, as defense attorneys highlighted inconsistencies in his testimony. Those on trial have argued that there was no plan or conspiracy,
only a spontaneous decision to follow the crowd into the building, and that an armed “Quick Reaction Force” stationed in Virginia was just
an elderly asthmatic who spent hours on Jan. 6 searching for his car.
Berry said he was persuaded to join the trip that put the Oath Keepers in D.C. on Jan. 6 by Kelly Meggs, the head of the Florida Oath Keepers. After a trial last year, Meggs and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes were
convicted of seditious conspiracy in November; associates, including another Florida Oath Keeper named Kenneth Harrelson, were acquitted of that charge but found guilty of other felonies related to the riot.
Berry testified that he and Meggs drove with other members from Florida to D.C., stashing weapons at a hotel in Ballston, Va. They provided protection for speakers at President Donald Trump’s speech and their families, then followed those “VIPs” to the Capitol, he said.
On the way, they learned the Capitol had been breached. On the east side of the building, Berry testified, Meggs led a huddle of Oath Keepers and told them that the election had been “illegitimate and unconstitutional” and that “we were going to try to stop the vote count.” They then organized into a military-style “stack,” he said, and headed up the stairs into the building “like a battering ram.”
Other rioters followed the Oath Keepers’ lead because “we had armor, we had military members, we were experienced,” Berry testified.