Oath Keepers founder
Stewart Rhodes told jurors at his
seditious conspiracy trial Monday that other members of the far-right group who stormed the U.S. Capitol were "off-mission" and insisted he was not engaged in any operation to forcefully oppose the federal government on Jan. 6.
“I had no idea that any Oath Keeper was even thinking about going inside or would go inside,” Rhodes said in his testimony in what has become a six-week-long trial for himself and co-defendants Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell.
During hours of testimony, Rhodes told jurors that going into the Capitol was "stupid" because it "opened the door for our political enemies to persecute us, and that’s what happened, and here we are."
Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins went inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rhodes said that he was "concerned" on Jan. 6 that Oath Keepers would get caught up "in all the nonsense with the Trump supporters" around the Capitol and that he sent a message on the encrypted app Signal asking Oath Keepers to gather at a spot near the Capitol for that reason.
"The goal was to make sure that no one got wrapped up in that Charlie Foxtrot," he said, using a military expression for "cluster f---."
Yet as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Rhodes praised the "patriots" and compared their actions to those of the country's founders, according to government evidence presented at trial.
And just days after the Capitol attack, Rhodes said he thought they "
should have brought rifles." He also continued to try to get President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and remain in office, and he spoke about his desire to "hang f---in' Pelosi from the lamppost," evidence showed.
Rhodes began his testimony
Friday and was cross-examined by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy on Monday.
"You're in charge, right?" Rakoczy asked Rhodes.
"Not when they do something off-mission I'm not in charge, unfortunately," he replied.
"Well, that's convenient," Rakoczy said.
“I had no idea that any Oath Keeper was even thinking about going inside or would go inside,” Rhodes said on the witness stand at his seditious conspiracy trial.
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