Day Five of the Oath Keepers trial was dedicated to a methodical plodding through a heap of damning text messages that the Justice Department argues are proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Elmer Stewart Rhodes and four of his Oath Keeper associates conspired to stop the peaceful transfer of power by force on Jan. 6, 2021.
Standing trial alongside Rhodes at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. are defendants Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, and Kenneth Harrelson. All are facing charges of seditious conspiracy. That charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. All have pleaded not guilty.
After a break on Monday in observance of Indigenous People’s Day, court resumed with more testimony from FBI Special Agent Byron Cody and later, FBI Special Agent Justin Eller also appeared on the witness stand.
Focusing on communications seized off the defendant’s devices, both Cody and Eller aided prosecutors in their quest to piece together a timeline of the alleged conspiracy that spanned November 2020 to early January 2021.
RELATED STORY: Prosecutors tell a story of sedition through Oath Keepers’ ‘bloody’ texts, speeches
Importantly, prosecutors have also started to drill down on assertions introduced during opening statements last week by defendants Watkins and Caldwell. Both of their attorneys insist that their clients were not directly involved or had major input into the alleged plotting.
Watkins’s attorney, Jonathan Crisp, argues that Watkins never intended any violence and descended on Washington to serve as a medic if any emergencies arose. Crisp has also argued that Watkins is remorseful because, he contends, she merely got swept up into the group thanks to a lifetime pursuit of trying to “fit in.”
Caldwell’s defense has relied on a number of increasingly thin arguments including that he 1) was not an Oath Keeper because he didn’t pay any dues to the organization; 2) his age and disability status as a former Navy veteran left him too decrepit to storm anything and 3) that the FBI jumped to the wrong conclusions when first arresting Caldwell and has altogether botched its probe of the Oath Keepers.
But arguments from the defense over the context or exact chronology of the text messages were forced to compete with the defendant’s own words writ large on slides for jurors to review.
For example, Crisp worked to minimize Watkins’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy by focusing Agent Cody’s attention on the first date Watkins appeared to have joined a chat group for Oath Keepers on Signal dubbed “DC OP Jan 6 21.”
On New Year’s Eve, Watkins wrote in the group: “Hey everyone! Jess from Ohio here!”
But when FBI Special Agent Justin Eller testified, prosecutors had him describe other messages he saw in the course of his investigation.
There were two messages from November 17, 2020, where Watkins forwarded news articles to fellow Oath Keepers where Rhodes was cited in the headline as vowing never to recognize Joe Biden as the rightful president.
Then there were other messages from a few days before the Nov. 14 Million MAGA March in D.C. where pro-Trump factions, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers came to protest the “stolen” election.
On Nov 9, 2020, and Nov. 11, 2020, Watkins wrote to her recruits about an impending military training session for Oath Keepers. Though the defense asserts these conversations were about the group’s so-called “peacekeeping” preparations for the Nov. 14 pro-Trump march in case “antifa” or Black Lives Matter protesters showed up, prosecutors cast a specter of doubt over that claim.
In the same Nov. 9 text where Watkins told an Oath Keeper that the military training would be “grueling,” she added: “I want my guys on the same page for the inauguration.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy was able to establish for jurors too that Rhodes was a part of another ntegral group chat known as the “Old Leadership Chat” from November 2020 to January 2021.
Rhodes’s intent to stop Congress from certifying the election, Rakoczy argued, began well before Trump posted a tweet on Dec. 19, 2020 inviting his followers to D.C. for a “big protest” that would be “wild.”
Rhodes published his first open letter calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on Dec. 14. He posted his second open letter to Trump asking for the same on Dec. 23. Ten days after Trump wrote his “wild” tweet, Rhodes was in that “Old Leadership Chat” rallying his troops while upbraiding Trump. “
“He needs to know if he doesn’t do it, we will,” Rhodes wrote to the group chat on Dec. 29, 2020.
Trump, Rhodes added, needed to know there would be “dire consequences” if he failed to raise the Oath Keepers to his side to stop the “theft” of the election.
Further review of the text timelines also made things a bit trickier for defendant Kelly Meggs. Meggs has tried time and again to distance himself from the group in court while downplaying his role but Rakoczy established for jurors that Meggs was part of the group’s chats at least as early as Dec. 18, a full day before Trump’s “wild” tweet.
The name of another Oath Keeper facing conspiracy charges, Donovan Crowl, repeatedly came to the surface during the fifth day of trial. Crowl has pleaded not guilty.
Crowl goes to trial in February, but a bevy of his communications with defendants Caldwell and Watkins were offered up as evidence in the sedition case.
Crowl wrote to Caldwell on Nov. 15, 2020, a day after the Million MAGA March: “I truly treasure your friendship, brother. War is on the horizon. Until we go to ground. Semper Fidelis.”
The next day, Crowl wrote to Caldwell again, this time telling him: “I think there will be real violence for all of us next time. I know it's not my place, but I’m sure you know, I’m already at work on the DC op.”
Caldwell’s responses to Crowl often featured logistics details and prosecutors argue that Caldwell was considered a touchstone for Oath Keepers as they rallied for their mission in January.
Jurors also saw new physical evidence in the courtroom. Pulling items seized from Watkins’s home and vehicle out of a series of white boxes, Special Agent Eller held out a helmet, a hand radio, a paintball gun with a cylinder equipped to handle steel balls over rubber ones; a vest with a plate carrier, pepper spray, a flashlight. goggles and a visor.
Pointing to a picture of Watkins put on display for jurors, Eller noted how patches on Watkins’s helmet in the picture matched those on the helmet that was seized from her home on Jan. 17, 2021.
Authorities also took a pair of black gloves with reinforced knuckles from her home. Watkins, Eller said, was wearing those same gloves in a picture of her from Jan. 6 that was found on her phone as well as the phone of Donovan Crowl.
There were also two shortened pool cues shown to jurors. The cues were equipped with a zip tie loop at one end that could serve as a handle. In a text to Crowl, Watkins described the cues as “whip ass sticks.” One of the cues was found in her car, the other in her home, Eller said.
Other items seized from Watkins’s home were also found including a shotgun and a pistol nestled in a gun bag. On cross-examination following the presentation, Crisp asked Eller if Watkins brought the shotgun or the pistol to D.C. on Jan. 6.
Eller said she did not. She only brought it as far as Virginia.
Prosecutors say Oath Keepers intentionally set up their “quick reaction force” at a hotel in northern Virginia because members were keenly aware of the restrictions on carrying guns in the nation’s capital. In lieu of carrying them in, the Justice Department says Rhodes, Caldwell, Harrelson, Watkins, and Meggs stashed their weapons just across the Potomac River so they would be ready to be ferried in.
The trial resumes on Wednesday at 9:30 am ET. And if you want even more detail, check out today’s live blog or the mega-thread on Twitter below.
Standing trial alongside Rhodes at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. are defendants Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, and Kenneth Harrelson. All are facing charges of seditious conspiracy. That charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. All have pleaded not guilty.
After a break on Monday in observance of Indigenous People’s Day, court resumed with more testimony from FBI Special Agent Byron Cody and later, FBI Special Agent Justin Eller also appeared on the witness stand.
Focusing on communications seized off the defendant’s devices, both Cody and Eller aided prosecutors in their quest to piece together a timeline of the alleged conspiracy that spanned November 2020 to early January 2021.
RELATED STORY: Prosecutors tell a story of sedition through Oath Keepers’ ‘bloody’ texts, speeches
Importantly, prosecutors have also started to drill down on assertions introduced during opening statements last week by defendants Watkins and Caldwell. Both of their attorneys insist that their clients were not directly involved or had major input into the alleged plotting.
Watkins’s attorney, Jonathan Crisp, argues that Watkins never intended any violence and descended on Washington to serve as a medic if any emergencies arose. Crisp has also argued that Watkins is remorseful because, he contends, she merely got swept up into the group thanks to a lifetime pursuit of trying to “fit in.”
Caldwell’s defense has relied on a number of increasingly thin arguments including that he 1) was not an Oath Keeper because he didn’t pay any dues to the organization; 2) his age and disability status as a former Navy veteran left him too decrepit to storm anything and 3) that the FBI jumped to the wrong conclusions when first arresting Caldwell and has altogether botched its probe of the Oath Keepers.
But arguments from the defense over the context or exact chronology of the text messages were forced to compete with the defendant’s own words writ large on slides for jurors to review.
For example, Crisp worked to minimize Watkins’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy by focusing Agent Cody’s attention on the first date Watkins appeared to have joined a chat group for Oath Keepers on Signal dubbed “DC OP Jan 6 21.”
On New Year’s Eve, Watkins wrote in the group: “Hey everyone! Jess from Ohio here!”
But when FBI Special Agent Justin Eller testified, prosecutors had him describe other messages he saw in the course of his investigation.
There were two messages from November 17, 2020, where Watkins forwarded news articles to fellow Oath Keepers where Rhodes was cited in the headline as vowing never to recognize Joe Biden as the rightful president.
Then there were other messages from a few days before the Nov. 14 Million MAGA March in D.C. where pro-Trump factions, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers came to protest the “stolen” election.
On Nov 9, 2020, and Nov. 11, 2020, Watkins wrote to her recruits about an impending military training session for Oath Keepers. Though the defense asserts these conversations were about the group’s so-called “peacekeeping” preparations for the Nov. 14 pro-Trump march in case “antifa” or Black Lives Matter protesters showed up, prosecutors cast a specter of doubt over that claim.
In the same Nov. 9 text where Watkins told an Oath Keeper that the military training would be “grueling,” she added: “I want my guys on the same page for the inauguration.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy was able to establish for jurors too that Rhodes was a part of another ntegral group chat known as the “Old Leadership Chat” from November 2020 to January 2021.
Rhodes’s intent to stop Congress from certifying the election, Rakoczy argued, began well before Trump posted a tweet on Dec. 19, 2020 inviting his followers to D.C. for a “big protest” that would be “wild.”
Rhodes published his first open letter calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on Dec. 14. He posted his second open letter to Trump asking for the same on Dec. 23. Ten days after Trump wrote his “wild” tweet, Rhodes was in that “Old Leadership Chat” rallying his troops while upbraiding Trump. “
“He needs to know if he doesn’t do it, we will,” Rhodes wrote to the group chat on Dec. 29, 2020.
Trump, Rhodes added, needed to know there would be “dire consequences” if he failed to raise the Oath Keepers to his side to stop the “theft” of the election.
Further review of the text timelines also made things a bit trickier for defendant Kelly Meggs. Meggs has tried time and again to distance himself from the group in court while downplaying his role but Rakoczy established for jurors that Meggs was part of the group’s chats at least as early as Dec. 18, a full day before Trump’s “wild” tweet.
The name of another Oath Keeper facing conspiracy charges, Donovan Crowl, repeatedly came to the surface during the fifth day of trial. Crowl has pleaded not guilty.
Crowl goes to trial in February, but a bevy of his communications with defendants Caldwell and Watkins were offered up as evidence in the sedition case.
Crowl wrote to Caldwell on Nov. 15, 2020, a day after the Million MAGA March: “I truly treasure your friendship, brother. War is on the horizon. Until we go to ground. Semper Fidelis.”
The next day, Crowl wrote to Caldwell again, this time telling him: “I think there will be real violence for all of us next time. I know it's not my place, but I’m sure you know, I’m already at work on the DC op.”
Caldwell’s responses to Crowl often featured logistics details and prosecutors argue that Caldwell was considered a touchstone for Oath Keepers as they rallied for their mission in January.
Jurors also saw new physical evidence in the courtroom. Pulling items seized from Watkins’s home and vehicle out of a series of white boxes, Special Agent Eller held out a helmet, a hand radio, a paintball gun with a cylinder equipped to handle steel balls over rubber ones; a vest with a plate carrier, pepper spray, a flashlight. goggles and a visor.
Pointing to a picture of Watkins put on display for jurors, Eller noted how patches on Watkins’s helmet in the picture matched those on the helmet that was seized from her home on Jan. 17, 2021.
Authorities also took a pair of black gloves with reinforced knuckles from her home. Watkins, Eller said, was wearing those same gloves in a picture of her from Jan. 6 that was found on her phone as well as the phone of Donovan Crowl.
There were also two shortened pool cues shown to jurors. The cues were equipped with a zip tie loop at one end that could serve as a handle. In a text to Crowl, Watkins described the cues as “whip ass sticks.” One of the cues was found in her car, the other in her home, Eller said.
Other items seized from Watkins’s home were also found including a shotgun and a pistol nestled in a gun bag. On cross-examination following the presentation, Crisp asked Eller if Watkins brought the shotgun or the pistol to D.C. on Jan. 6.
Eller said she did not. She only brought it as far as Virginia.
Prosecutors say Oath Keepers intentionally set up their “quick reaction force” at a hotel in northern Virginia because members were keenly aware of the restrictions on carrying guns in the nation’s capital. In lieu of carrying them in, the Justice Department says Rhodes, Caldwell, Harrelson, Watkins, and Meggs stashed their weapons just across the Potomac River so they would be ready to be ferried in.
The trial resumes on Wednesday at 9:30 am ET. And if you want even more detail, check out today’s live blog or the mega-thread on Twitter below.