Oath Keepers founder spoke of bloody war ahead of U.S. Capitol attack

Fresno CA

Description

Prosecutors in the trial of five Oath Keepers members on Friday showed a jury fresh evidence that the right-wing militia group's founder Stewart Rhodes told his followers ahead of last year's U.S. Capitol attack there would be a "bloody" war if then-President Donald Trump failed to reverse his 2020 election loss. In numerous text messages, online postings and speeches shown as evidence, Rhodes promoted the use of force and implored Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th century U.S. law that empowers presidents to deploy troops to quell civil unrest. Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act even as Rhodes wrote to him in open letters posted online about the idea and bragged to fellow Oath Keeper leaders in a December 2020 text that he was "on back-channel working groups trying to advise the president." Rhodes and his four co-defendants are on trial on felony charges including seditious conspiracy. A second set of Oath Keeper defendants accused of being part of the same conspiracy are slated to go to trial in November.