Time was running out. It was exactly 14 days until Congress would meet to certify the results of the 2020 election, and Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was unable to contain his frustration.
“This will be DC rally #3. Getting kinda old. They don’t give a shit how many show up and wave a sign, pray or yell. They won’t fear us until we come with rifles in our hand,” Rhodes wrote on Dec. 23, 2021, in a text message to fellow members of the extremist group.
Prosecutors showed jurors this message and dozens of others on Friday as the seditious conspiracy trial for Rhodes and four of his associates—Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, Kelly Meggs, and Jessica Watkins—entered its fourth day.
RELATED STORY: LIVE: Follow along for Day Four of the Oath Keepers sedition trial
His impatience in that message manifested after Rhodes had already issued two open letters to then-President Donald Trump on the Oath Keepers website, assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy pointed out Friday.
One was published on Dec. 14, the very last day for Electoral College electors to cast their votes. The next was published a week later, on Dec. 23.
In both of the letters, Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act so that Oath Keepers could be raised to his side as a militia. That would squelch what Rhodes believed was the active theft of the 2020 election by Democrats, “usurpers,” “Chinese communist puppets,” “neoconservatives” in the Senate, and other figures from the “deep state,” the text messages stated.
Jan. 6 would indeed be the third time Oath Keepers and other extremist groups like the Proud Boys would come to Washington together to protest election fraud that simply didn’t exist. The so-called “Million MAGA March” in support of Trump on Nov. 14 had nowhere near the advertised turnout.
Despite claims by those in the Trump administration, like former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, that more than a million people showed up, the numbers were only in the thousands.
Counterprotesters and Trump supporters clashed as the day went on, and several arrests for simple assault were made. Trump was heartened by the protests. He had refused to concede his loss to Joe Biden for a week by that point, and on the morning of the rally, he drove past demonstrators in his motorcade and waved.
The next rally with a near-identical premise followed on Dec. 12, 2020. For Rhodes, prosecutors argue, it was still very much about getting Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. But with the joint session even closer now, the tempo was turned up.
Trump White House officials like former national security adviser Michael Flynn and fellow election fraud conspiracy-addled allies like My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell were in Washington on Dec 12. They spoke at a prayer rally dubbed the “Jericho March,” where Rhodes and other far-right figureheads, like Alex Jones, joined them.
FBI Special Agent Ryan McCamley, told the jury he listened as Rhodes addressed the crowd; McCamley was in plain clothes and had been assigned special countersurveillance duty that day. McCamley testified that the agency knew a potential for violence among Trump’s supporters and other protesters existed, especially after the Nov. 14 event, so he was already keeping tabs on all of the activity downtown.
When he saw Rhodes, it was the first time he had put eyes on him in public. He had only learned about the Oath Keepers, he said, weeks before when he was scrolling through his phone and came across an article about the group published by Defense One.
“Show the world who the traitors are and use the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes cried out.
Trump “needed to know” that the people were with him, Rhodes railed.
If Trump didn’t invoke the Insurrection Act while he was still commander-in-chief, then it only left one option.
“We’re going to have to do it ourselves later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war,” Rhodes said.
On cross-examination, Rhodes’s attorney James Lee Bright had McCamley concede that what he saw that day in D.C. was not illegal. Rhodes was allowed to protest if he wanted.
But what McCamley couldn’t see then were the texts flying from Rhodes to leaders of the Oath Keepers in rapid fire in the days before and after that rally. Some of the messages echoed what Rhodes ultimately told the crowd on Dec. 12.
“We are going to have a fight. That can’t be avoided. But it’s better to fight now while Trump is commander in chief than have to wait til he’s gone,” Rhodes wrote to Oath Keepers n a text channel labeled “Old Leadership Chat.”
Only a day before, Rhodes sent a message to a different channel listed as “Friends of Stone,” a reference to Roger Stone, the longtime GOP operative, Trump ally, and alleged member of the Proud Boys.
The Insurrection Act was all Trump had left to fight the theft of the election, Rhodes wrote.
"That's all he has left. If he doesn't do that then we will have to fight against an illegitimate Biden regime... It will be a bloody and desperate fight,” he said.
Two days later, Rhodes unloaded in a text to the group that Trump only had “one last chance to act.” He published the first open letter to Trump that day.
“People keep saying invoking the Insurrection Act is a last resort,” Rhodes wrote 24 hours later. “Nonsense, he must do it now before Jan. 6 and give state legislators a chance to decertify before Jan.6.”
Then, that same day, Rakoczy showed jurors how Rhodes's frustration continued mounting.
“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! LOL,” a text from the Oath Keepers leader to the Friends of Stone channel read. “I’ll say it again, it’s a tragic mistake for him to wait until Jan. 6 or after.”
When Rhodes published his next and final open letter begging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, the language was plain.
“We will take to arms to defend our liberty,” Rhodes wrote in the Dec. 23 letter.
Trump had “millions of patriots standing ready,” he continued.
“Do not leave them to defend themselves. Drain the swamp. Do it now. We will help you every step of the way,” Rhodes pleaded.
Kellye SoRelle, the Oath Keeper and attorney now under indictment for conspiracy to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, also signed the letter.
Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act.
Prosecutors unpacked other texts for jurors, too, including those sent after Rhodes appeared to mostly abandon the notion that Trump would raise an Oath Keepers militia to stop the transfer of power.
In a channel deemed “DC OP Jan 6 21,” Rhodes told members on Dec. 30 to gather Oath Keepers state leaders into the chat.
“All, I prefer that when cohesive teams come on to an op, they run as team under the immediate leadership of their own team. That way they get operational experience as a unit and leaders get to lead,” he wrote.
But, he reminded, he would still be the overall leader.
It had just been a busy time for him, he explained in the following text.
“We will have many balls in the air, I have been so busy on many back channels working groups trying to advise the president, that I am behind the curve on getting you all plugged in on this one,” Rhodes wrote.
Whether Rhodes was boasting or being truthful about his “back channels” advising Trump is unclear for now. Though undoubtedly, the overlap between Trump, his inner circle, and groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys has emerged as increasingly significant as the Justice Department has continued its probe into Jan. 6 for the last 600-plus days.
Prosecutors bear the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Rhodes and his co-defendants were intent on committing seditious conspiracy, or, planning to put down or destroy the authority of the U.S. government by force. That is the prime directive for the Justice Department in this sprawling case.
And on Friday, as jurors prepared to go home for the weekend, the Justice Department offered one of its strongest pieces of evidence so far to support that mission.
It was a text from Rhodes sent on Jan. 5, the eve of the Capitol assault.
”On the 6th, they are going to put the final nail in the coffin of this republic unless we fight our way out. With Trump preferably, or without him. We have no choice,” he wrote.
“This will be DC rally #3. Getting kinda old. They don’t give a shit how many show up and wave a sign, pray or yell. They won’t fear us until we come with rifles in our hand,” Rhodes wrote on Dec. 23, 2021, in a text message to fellow members of the extremist group.
Prosecutors showed jurors this message and dozens of others on Friday as the seditious conspiracy trial for Rhodes and four of his associates—Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, Kelly Meggs, and Jessica Watkins—entered its fourth day.
RELATED STORY: LIVE: Follow along for Day Four of the Oath Keepers sedition trial
His impatience in that message manifested after Rhodes had already issued two open letters to then-President Donald Trump on the Oath Keepers website, assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy pointed out Friday.
One was published on Dec. 14, the very last day for Electoral College electors to cast their votes. The next was published a week later, on Dec. 23.
In both of the letters, Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act so that Oath Keepers could be raised to his side as a militia. That would squelch what Rhodes believed was the active theft of the 2020 election by Democrats, “usurpers,” “Chinese communist puppets,” “neoconservatives” in the Senate, and other figures from the “deep state,” the text messages stated.
Jan. 6 would indeed be the third time Oath Keepers and other extremist groups like the Proud Boys would come to Washington together to protest election fraud that simply didn’t exist. The so-called “Million MAGA March” in support of Trump on Nov. 14 had nowhere near the advertised turnout.
Despite claims by those in the Trump administration, like former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, that more than a million people showed up, the numbers were only in the thousands.
Counterprotesters and Trump supporters clashed as the day went on, and several arrests for simple assault were made. Trump was heartened by the protests. He had refused to concede his loss to Joe Biden for a week by that point, and on the morning of the rally, he drove past demonstrators in his motorcade and waved.
The next rally with a near-identical premise followed on Dec. 12, 2020. For Rhodes, prosecutors argue, it was still very much about getting Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. But with the joint session even closer now, the tempo was turned up.
Trump White House officials like former national security adviser Michael Flynn and fellow election fraud conspiracy-addled allies like My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell were in Washington on Dec 12. They spoke at a prayer rally dubbed the “Jericho March,” where Rhodes and other far-right figureheads, like Alex Jones, joined them.
FBI Special Agent Ryan McCamley, told the jury he listened as Rhodes addressed the crowd; McCamley was in plain clothes and had been assigned special countersurveillance duty that day. McCamley testified that the agency knew a potential for violence among Trump’s supporters and other protesters existed, especially after the Nov. 14 event, so he was already keeping tabs on all of the activity downtown.
When he saw Rhodes, it was the first time he had put eyes on him in public. He had only learned about the Oath Keepers, he said, weeks before when he was scrolling through his phone and came across an article about the group published by Defense One.
“Show the world who the traitors are and use the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes cried out.
Trump “needed to know” that the people were with him, Rhodes railed.
If Trump didn’t invoke the Insurrection Act while he was still commander-in-chief, then it only left one option.
“We’re going to have to do it ourselves later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war,” Rhodes said.
On cross-examination, Rhodes’s attorney James Lee Bright had McCamley concede that what he saw that day in D.C. was not illegal. Rhodes was allowed to protest if he wanted.
But what McCamley couldn’t see then were the texts flying from Rhodes to leaders of the Oath Keepers in rapid fire in the days before and after that rally. Some of the messages echoed what Rhodes ultimately told the crowd on Dec. 12.
“We are going to have a fight. That can’t be avoided. But it’s better to fight now while Trump is commander in chief than have to wait til he’s gone,” Rhodes wrote to Oath Keepers n a text channel labeled “Old Leadership Chat.”
Only a day before, Rhodes sent a message to a different channel listed as “Friends of Stone,” a reference to Roger Stone, the longtime GOP operative, Trump ally, and alleged member of the Proud Boys.
The Insurrection Act was all Trump had left to fight the theft of the election, Rhodes wrote.
"That's all he has left. If he doesn't do that then we will have to fight against an illegitimate Biden regime... It will be a bloody and desperate fight,” he said.
Two days later, Rhodes unloaded in a text to the group that Trump only had “one last chance to act.” He published the first open letter to Trump that day.
“People keep saying invoking the Insurrection Act is a last resort,” Rhodes wrote 24 hours later. “Nonsense, he must do it now before Jan. 6 and give state legislators a chance to decertify before Jan.6.”
Then, that same day, Rakoczy showed jurors how Rhodes's frustration continued mounting.
“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! LOL,” a text from the Oath Keepers leader to the Friends of Stone channel read. “I’ll say it again, it’s a tragic mistake for him to wait until Jan. 6 or after.”
When Rhodes published his next and final open letter begging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, the language was plain.
“We will take to arms to defend our liberty,” Rhodes wrote in the Dec. 23 letter.
Trump had “millions of patriots standing ready,” he continued.
“Do not leave them to defend themselves. Drain the swamp. Do it now. We will help you every step of the way,” Rhodes pleaded.
Kellye SoRelle, the Oath Keeper and attorney now under indictment for conspiracy to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, also signed the letter.
Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act.
Prosecutors unpacked other texts for jurors, too, including those sent after Rhodes appeared to mostly abandon the notion that Trump would raise an Oath Keepers militia to stop the transfer of power.
In a channel deemed “DC OP Jan 6 21,” Rhodes told members on Dec. 30 to gather Oath Keepers state leaders into the chat.
“All, I prefer that when cohesive teams come on to an op, they run as team under the immediate leadership of their own team. That way they get operational experience as a unit and leaders get to lead,” he wrote.
But, he reminded, he would still be the overall leader.
It had just been a busy time for him, he explained in the following text.
“We will have many balls in the air, I have been so busy on many back channels working groups trying to advise the president, that I am behind the curve on getting you all plugged in on this one,” Rhodes wrote.
Whether Rhodes was boasting or being truthful about his “back channels” advising Trump is unclear for now. Though undoubtedly, the overlap between Trump, his inner circle, and groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys has emerged as increasingly significant as the Justice Department has continued its probe into Jan. 6 for the last 600-plus days.
Prosecutors bear the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Rhodes and his co-defendants were intent on committing seditious conspiracy, or, planning to put down or destroy the authority of the U.S. government by force. That is the prime directive for the Justice Department in this sprawling case.
And on Friday, as jurors prepared to go home for the weekend, the Justice Department offered one of its strongest pieces of evidence so far to support that mission.
It was a text from Rhodes sent on Jan. 5, the eve of the Capitol assault.
”On the 6th, they are going to put the final nail in the coffin of this republic unless we fight our way out. With Trump preferably, or without him. We have no choice,” he wrote.