Oath Keeper’s Lawyer Tells Jury ‘Hoodlums’ Caused Jan. 6 Attack
(Bloomberg) -- A federal jury on Tuesday morning will begin deliberating seditious conspiracy charges brought against five members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia after their two-month trail stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol wrapped up.
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The five defendants, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate, joined the mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters “because they hated the outcome of the 2020 presidential election” and saw it as “an existential threat,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told the jury in a final rebuttal Monday in Washington.
“They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution -- they trampled it instead,” Nestler said in response to five separate closing arguments. “They claimed to be saving the republic -- they fractured it instead.”
After the jury was dismissed, US District Judge Amit Mehta praised the lawyers for their work and said the American people “have no better case than this” to demonstrate how the US government should work.
Defense lawyers argued the US failed to present evidence that members of the extremist group had a specific plan to attack the Capitol. Kenneth Harrelson, a military veteran who helped organize the Oath Keepers’ Florida chapter, only entered the building after other rioters jumped through windows they smashed with two-by-fours and opened the doors from the inside, his attorney Brad Geyer said in a closing argument in federal court in Washington.
Geyer showed jurors CCTV footage of his client both inside and outside the building on Jan. 6, 2021, saying Harrelson was only in the building for 17 minutes, and that it “boggles the mind” that he was part of any violent plan. The lawyer called the rioters “hoodlums” and “goons” and said his client was only in Washington to provide security at a pro-Trump rally that day.
“Ken did go in -- you will see him filming, you will see him get down on his knees and pray to the Almighty under that majestic dome, because it was the fist time he ever saw it,” Geyer said. “Video doesn’t lie.”
Mehta is overseeing the first seditious-conspiracy trial stemming from the attack, which caused $2 million in damage and injured more than 140 police officers. Much is at stake for the Justice Department, which seeks to prove that Oath Keepers’ and four others conspired to commit violence and prevent President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump from being confirmed by Congress.
Harrelson’s lawyer called the seditious conspiracy charge “nonsense.” The Florida man is also charged with destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding and entering a restricted building.
David Fischer, lawyer for defendant Thomas Caldwell, told the jury on Monday that prosecutors failed to present evidence that his client was in any of the Oath Keepers leadership chats, or that he engaged in violence or obstructed justice by tampering with evidence. Caldwell and his wife, who live in Virginia, took hundreds of photos with their phones on Jan. 6 and didn’t attempt to delete them from multiple synced devices, he said.
“They literally were photo bombing DC that day,” Fischer said. “You’ll see in the photos there is no violence, no police being harassed. There are no Oath Keepers in the photos. Think about that.”
Fischer also said that a selfie Caldwell took in front of the Peace Monument, on the edge of the Capitol grounds and not in a restricted area, was taken just a few minutes before Congress was evacuated.
“How could he be obstructing an official proceeding when he’s not even on restricted grounds” when it happened, Fischer said.
Jonathan Crisp, lawyer for Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins, told the jury his client -- who took the stand in her defense -- feels shame for her actions that is “evident and palpable.” But he accused the government of “manipulating evidence and manipulating individuals on the stand” in order to place his client in a non-existent conspiracy. Crisp said Watkins is a veteran who had a hard time leaving the armed services under difficult circumstances and got caught up in conspiracy theories.
“As crazy as it sounds,” evidence showing Watkins discussing violence was in regard to defending the US from an invasion by the United Nations -- not a desire to “overthrow President Biden.”
(Updates with trial ending and jury starting deliberations Tuesday.)
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