Oath Keepers trial: Defendants 'concocted plan for armed rebellion' on Jan. 6, prosecution says

Five members of the Oath Keepers facing charges of seditious conspiracy "concocted a plan for an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy," a federal prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at the D.C. district court, kicking off the high-stakes first trial for members of the far-right militia group.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told jurors the defendants, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, along with members Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell, "banded together to do whatever was necessary" to stop the transfer of power between Donald Trump and then-President-elect Joe Biden -- and that they saw U.S. Congress certification of the electoral college as their perfect opportunity.

In addition to their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, the Oath Keepers members conspired to stage "an arsenal of firearms," including multiple semi-automatic rifles at a hotel just outside of Washington D.C. and multiple teams of so-called "Quick Reaction Forces," with Caldwell even plotting for ways to potentially ferry weapons into the city by boat across the Potomac River in case they were called on, the prosecution alleged.

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Nestler showed jurors multiple photo and video exhibits during his more than an hour-long opening statement, including the now-infamous picture of members of the group climbing the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot in a military-style "stack" formation. He also showed video snippets of members of the Oath Keepers militia participating in training sessions with semi-automatic rifles.

All of the defendants, except Meggs, formerly served in the military before joining the Oath Keepers.

"These defendants use their training, knowledge and experience they gained in the United States Armed Forces to further their ability to succeed and plot to oppose by force the government of the United States," Nestler said on Monday.

While Rhodes is not alleged to have participated in the breach of the Capitol, Nestler described him as the group's ringleader in calling members to Washington and urging them to resist the transfer of power by force if necessary.

Nestler played audio of various public appeals Rhodes made to Trump directly, asking him to invoke the Insurrection Act, which he believed would help mobilize members of the group to take up arms and resist any efforts to remove Trump from office. He said Rhodes, a Yale-educated former lawyer, told the group "they needed to be careful with their words" and used coded language to shield their true aims of opposing by force the lawful transfer of presidential power, the prosecution alleged.

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Even after the riot, as they learned law enforcement was seeking to arrest those involved in the attack on the Capitol, Rhodes attempted to pass a message directly to Trump assuring him it was not too late to take action, Nestler said.

"My only regret is that they should have brought rifles," Rhodes said in recorded audio on Jan. 10. "We could have fixed it right then and there."