Texts, recordings show Oath Keepers' early talk of armed resistance to Biden presidency - POLITICO

“He doesn’t need to build some kind of complicated case about election fraud and collusion and RICO and conspiracy to justify bringing the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes told his associates.

Within hours of the 2020 election being called for Joe Biden, Stewart Rhodes — leader of the far-right Oath Keepers — began barraging associates with a consistent message: We must pressure Donald Trump to take extraordinary steps to remain in power?

And if he wouldn’t, the Oath Keepers would do it themselves, he said.

Prosecutors used the early hours of the seditious conspiracy trial of Rhodes and four Oath Keeper leaders — the most significant cae to emerge from the Jan.

In a recorded meeting with 100 members of the Oath Keepers on Nov.

9, 2020 – portions of which were played for jurors Tuesday — Rhodes again said it was his hope to press Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.

“He doesn’t need to build some kind of complicated case about election fraud and collusion and RICO and conspiracy to justify bringing the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes told his associates.

Those weapons were never deployed, even as the pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol and sent members of Congress fleeing for safety6

Nearly two-dozen members of the Oath Keepers were among the mob and had split up to comb different areas of the Capitol.

During cross-examination, attorneys for Rhodes and Caldwell described the messages among the Oath Keepers as overblown or lacking context

Palian said the FBI remained concerned about Caldwell because, initially, Caldwell had told associates he went inside the Capitol and investigators believed him to be the lead coordinator of the Arlington, Va

The trial of Rhodes and his allies is expected to last six to eight weeks, in what is the most significant prosecution to arise from the Jan

Many of the messages highlighted by prosecutors pertained to an earlier visit to Washington — a November rally in support of Trump that had been dubbed “The Million MAGA March.” In messages shown to jurors, Watkins described to associates a plan to bring the Oath Keepers to Washington for an “all hands on deck” moment while they were “awaiting permission from Trump” to escalate their actions

She said Oath Keepers would be ready to ferry the weapons to members on the ground “if it gets bad.”