The Oath Keepers are the first to stand trial on seditious conspiracy in the Capitol attack, a rare Civil War-era charge that carries up to 20 years behind bars.
Federal prosecutors are preparing to lay out their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers' extremist group and four associates.Federal prosecutors will lay out their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group and four associates charged in the most serious case to reach trial yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.
The stakes are high for the Justice Department, which last secured a seditious conspiracy conviction at trial nearly 30 years ago. Prosecutors will tell jurors that the insurrection for the antigovernment group was not a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage but part of a drawn-out plot to stop Biden from entering the White House.
By December, authorities say, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress' certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. And prosecutors say the plot didn't end on Jan. 6. In the days between the riot and Biden's inauguration, Rhodes spent more than $17,000 on firearm parts, magazines, ammunition and other items, prosecutors say. Around the time of the inauguration, Rhodes told others to organize local militias to oppose the Democratic administration, authorities say.
Rhodes' lawyers are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before Jan. 6 were in preparation for orders he anticipated from Trump - orders that never came.
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