NewsUSAA historic trial begins this Tuesday against the leadership of the Oath Keepers militia for the assault on the US Capitol

A historic trial begins this Tuesday against the leadership of the Oath Keepers militia for the assault on the US Capitol

Stewart Rhodes, founding leader of Oath Keepers, during his appearance in the parliamentary commission on the assault on the Capitol. – RON SACHS / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO

This Tuesday begins a historic judicial process against the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and four of his lieutenants, for crimes of sedition and conspiracy to violently overthrow the United States Government during the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

This is the first trial in more than a decade against an American extremist group for crimes of this type. In this case, the leadership of Oath Keepers is accused of trying to forcibly stop the confirmation by Congress of the victory of the president, Joe Biden, in the 2019 presidential elections.

The process begins with the selection of the jury in a federal court in Washington. This is the first of the three sedition trials scheduled for this year for the episodes that occurred on January 6, in which a motley but violent mob of Donald Trump supporters responded to his call to break into the Capitol and stop the ascent from Biden to the White House.

The five defendants, who have pleaded not guilty to all of these charges, face maximum prison sentences of up to 20 years. Prosecutors hope they can show that they were all part of a well-organized plan, which ranged from previous reconnaissance operations, to staging quick-response armed attacks, to a military assault on Congress.

Sedition and conspiracy are the most important charges that have been filed against the approximately 850 people who have been arrested for their participation in those disturbances. The main accusation that the prosecutors have presented is that of illegally entering a restricted place, while the rest of the most recurrent ones are for aggression or resistance to authority.

Stewart Rhodes, 57, has been at the head of the group since he founded it, back in 2009. He is a former Army paratrooper who is currently in preventive detention in Texas, after a court ruling that warned that it has the ability to “finance future insurrections”.

The Rhodes case was the first major accusation brought against a member of these heavily armed militias present in the January 6 riots. Until then, the rest of the members of these groups, such as Proud Boys or Three Percenters, although they were accused of conspiring to hinder a legal process, did not include the nuance of sedition, which has a strong political charge.

The other four are Kelly Meggs, 53, head of the Oath Keepers delegation in Florida, along with Kenneth Harrelson, 41, another of the detainees; Jessica Watkins, 40, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan before joining the group in Ohio; and Thomas Caldwell, 68, an FBI employee and former Navy commander, who has denied belonging to the group.

His lawyers have argued that his presence in Washington on those days was in his interest to act as “peacekeepers” if riots broke out between supporters of Donald Trump and anti-fascist groups. As an example, they explain, some of them entered the Capitol to “help” the police.

Source: Europa Press

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