Two of the five defendants linked to the Oath Keepers group were found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, in what was the government's highest-stakes Capitol riot trial held so far.
After three days of deliberations, a jury found the founder of the Oath Keepers and a member guilty. Rhodes was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding but not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Meggs was responsible for both of those.
Three of the defendants were found guilty of lesser charges.
The trial went on for nearly two months as the process of selecting a panel of 12 jurors and a handful of alternates began.
The mob's storming of the seat of U.S. legislative power posed a real threat to American democracy, according to prosecutors. Efforts to hold participants accountable, including those of the House Jan. 6 select committee, are important because of the guilty verdict.
Rhodes, Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins, and Kenneth Harrelson were accused of scheming to disrupt the transfer of power. All five defendants were found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, a charge often seen in trials for January 6 defendants.
The judge is expected to hand down sentences in the near future.
The maximum sentence for seditious conspiracy is 20 years, the same as obstruction of an official proceeding. A former New York City police officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
The three defendants who took the stand were: Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers as an anti-government militia after the election of former President Barack Obama; Caldwell, whose lawyers suggested his poor health prevented him from seriously acting on any threats he made to overthrow the government; and Watkins, who
When confronted with evidence of their previous statements, all three struggled.
For more than a decade, the Oath Keepers have recruited active and former law enforcement and military service members who vow to oppose any orders they consider unconstitutional.
Rhodes often used grandiose language to suggest the group had an almost biblical purpose. If Donald Trump failed to stop Joe Biden from winning the election, what was at stake was outlined in an open letter written by Rhodes.
He told Trump that he would leave the people no choice but to walk in the footsteps of the founding fathers if he failed to fulfill his duties.
Evidence at the trial showed how members of the group stashed a large amount of powerful rifles and bullets just outside the Washington, D.C. border at a hotel where they were staying. Washington and Virginia have different gun control laws.
There are stills from security cameras that show defendants wheeling large cases of supplies to the Capitol if necessary. Caldwell denied that he ever had a plan to take the weapons across the river. In one of the trial's more absurd moments, Caldwell testified that a text message reference to moving heavy weapons was just something out of his script.
He told the court that Oath Keepers were accustomed to traveling heavily armed but wanted to respect D.C.'s gun laws.
The trial of Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, will take place in November of 2022.
The Insurrection Act was invoked by Trump in January of 2021. The Oath Keepers and other militia groups would have the "legal cover" to grab their guns and use them to keep Trump in power, as Rhodes said he personally believed no one had won the 2020 election due to fraud.
The Oath Keepers brought a lot of weapons with them to the Virginia hotel, and a former Oath Keeper said at trial, "I had not seen that many weapons in one place since I was in the military."
The defense strategy didn't fit together. Attorneys for the group mostly portrayed their clients as patriotic. They said that their clients were not charged with actually using their weapons and that they were not on trial. The jury was told to keep in mind the Constitution's free speech protections, which include speech that they may personally find offensive, but they were reminded that they could consider any statements made by defendants as evidence that they may have entered into a conspiracy.
Some of the defendants didn't enter the Capitol. Rhodes was texting while standing outside the building. He made it to the entrance to the tunnel on the other side of the building where some of the worst violence took place.
In a text message he sent to a friend the evening of the attack, Caldwell recounted the scene at the Capitol: "I said if we're going to get blamed, might as well do it"
Three defendants Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins were part of a group of Oath Keepers who prosecutors say positioned themselves in a military style "stack" formation to enter the Capitol. The photos show the group moving up the Capitol steps with one hand on each other. Prosecutors said that Meggs and Harrelson went to look for Pelosi.
Watkins used part of her time on the stand to express remorse for her actions, apologizing to a Metropolitan Police officer who was positioned opposite her, "protecting other officers from my dumb ass." Christopher Owens was a witness in the trial.
Some of the messages the defendants sent had been deleted. The former Oath Keepers gave insight into the group. While there was no specific plan to enter the Capitol that day, those who did saw themselves as participants in a Bastille-type moment. He explained to the jury how he was going to say goodbye to his family if he didn't return from the Capitol.
Even after the mob at the Capitol killed people, Rhodes continued to assert election conspiracy theories.
He wrote in an Oath Keepers group chat that it was a long day but a day when the people began to stand. Either stand or kneel. You should honor your oaths. Don't forget your legacies.
One of the trial's more disturbing moments was when prosecutors played an audio recording of a meeting Rhodes had with an acquaintances just a few days after the riot. Rhodes regretted that the Oath Keepers hadn't just brought their rifles to Capitol Hill.
He said he would hang Pelosi from the lamp post. Rhodes thought the comment was alcohol-related bluster.
The prosecutors focused a lot on Rhodes.
The jury was told not to see that as a reason to let the others go free.
The jury instructions state that an equal role is not what the law requires.
The Oath Keepers and a group of Proud Boys are going on trial.
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