His defense is focused largely on his the idea that his rhetoric was aimed at convincing Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.
, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary and what qualifies as military force. Rhodes told jurors he believed it would have been legal for Trump to invoke that act and call up a militia in response to what he believed was an “unconstitutional” and “invalid” election.It was not entirely clear what Rhodes would have wanted the militia to do after being called up by Trump.
Rhodes also addressed another key part of prosecutors’ case: a massive arsenal of weapons the Oath Keepers had a hotel at nearby Virginia. Prosecutors say the guns were an element of a so-called quick reaction force that the group could deploy quickly to Washington. Rhodes did not go into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and prosecutors have described him as “a general surveying his troops on a battlefield.” Rhodes said that he merely went to the Capitol to find his Oath Keeper followers who were not on a security “mission” protecting figures such as Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant. Rhodes said he didn’t even realize that one of his men who went into the Capitol had done so until he saw him in an FBI photo.
Among their key witnesses were two of Rhodes’ former followers who pleaded guilty in the Capitol attack and agreed to cooperate with investigators in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence. One told jurors that the Oath Keepers were prepared to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral victory by “any means necessary,” including by taking up arms. and struck cooperation deals with prosecutors were notably not put on the stand by the government. It’s unclear why.
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