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Prosecutors on Monday urged a jury to convict Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four others for their roles in storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, alleging they plotted to do whatever it took to prevent the transfer of presidential power.
“They concocted a plan for an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy,” prosecutor Jeff Nestler said on Monday in an opening statement at their trial in federal court in Washington.
Rhodes and his co-defendants Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson are accused of plotting to forcefully prevent Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in a failed bid to keep then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, in power.
In their opening statements, prosecutors portrayed Rhodes as a sophisticated leader of the far-right group who sent encrypted Signal messages to his followers after Biden won the 2020 election, saying “We must prepare for civil war.”
“It will be torches and pitchforks time if they (Congress) don’t do the right thing,” he wrote in one encrypted message sent in November 2020.
Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol last January after Trump falsely claimed the election had been stolen from him through widespread fraud. Five people died during and shortly after the riot, and about 140 police were injured.
The five on trial face numerous felony charges, including seditious conspiracy – a Civil War-era statute that is rarely prosecuted and carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said the defendants trained and planned for Jan. 6 and stockpiled weapons at a northern Virginia hotel outside the capital in the group’s so-called “quick reaction force” (QFR) that would be ready if called upon to transport arms into Washington.
As lawmakers…
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Source : france24
