Sedition Trial For Five Oath Keepers To Start Tuesday

The Associated Press reports:

Despite nearly 900 arrests and hundreds of convictions in the riot, Stewart Rhodes and four Oath Keeper associates — Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are the first to stand trial on the rare and difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors will try to show that the insurrection for the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but part of a serious, weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power.

Defense lawyers for the Oath Keepers will tell jurors the government case is all a lie. The Oath Keepers accuse prosecutors of twisting their words and insist there was never any plan to attack the Capitol. They say they were in Washington to provide security at events for figures such as Roger Stone. Their preparations, training, gear and weapons were to protect themselves against potential violence from left-wing antifa activists or to be ready if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to call up a militia.

Read the full article. There’s much more.

My latest for @AP: A look at the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers’ leader Stewart Rhodes and four associates whose trial in the U.S. Capitol attack opens with jury selection on Tuesday: https://t.co/78lCSOq9os

— Alanna Durkin Richer (@aedurkinricher) September 24, 2022