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The founder and leader of a group accused of plotting to forcibly reject the outcome of the 2020 presidential election testified in his own defence, one day after prosecutors rested their case in a seditious conspiracy trial involving Stewart Rhodes and members of the Oath Keepers.
His testimony marks an unusual and potentially risky move in a trial that has sought to expose the far-right anti-government militia group’s plans to “attack” the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, fuelled by baseless conspiracy theories that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
By taking the stand, Mr Rhodes opened himself to cross examination from federal prosecutors who have presented to the jury with dozens of text messages and video and audio evidence involving Mr Rhodes and four others accused of seditious conspiracy.
During his first appearance on the stand on 4 November, Mr Rhodes was asked whether he believed the 2020 presidential election was “stolen”. Doubling down on his baseless denial of the outcome, he said he believed the election was “unconstitutional”.
“You can’t really have a winner of an unconstitutional election. That would mean that Donald Trump, too, was not the winner,” he told the jury.
He said the group’s name is a reference to the military’s sworn oath to defend the US Constitution, and that the group’s founding documents expressly prohibit anyone who advocates overthrowing the government – an allegation central to federal prosecutors’ argument in the conspiracy case.
Defence attorneys have argued that the Oath Keepers were invited to Washington DC to protect Trump supporters and made no plans to commit violence, awaiting orders from then-President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.
In audio recordings played to the jury earlier this week, Mr Rhodes told a government witness that his “only regret” about 6 January 2021 was that they did not bring firearms to the Capitol that day.
“We should have brought rifles,” he said. “We could have fixed it right then and there.”
He also said he would “f****** hang” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “from the lamppost.”
His first day of testimony sought to paint himself as a nonpartisan patriot in defence of the Constitution, an attempt to contrast the mounds of evidence and his own public appearances that showed him spending weeks energising his supporters and pledging violence resistance.
On the stand, Mr Rhodes described his family background, brief military service, his time at Yale Law School, and his work for Libertarian Ron Paul.
“He was anti-war, anti-corruption, and definitely not a fan of the prison-industrial complex,” Mr Rhodes said.
Following law school, he clerked for a judge on the Arizona Supreme Court, then moved to Montana, where he practiced criminal law from 2004 to 2006. He returned to Las Vegas to care for his mother until 2010, he said.
He said he started the Oath Keepers in 2009, which at its height had roughly 40,000 members, 30 per cent of which are law enforcement, he said.
Mr Rhodes said he wanted law enforcement officers to refuse unconstitutional orders. “I wanted to make sure they knew where the lines were and their duty to say no,” he said.
He said that unlike the far-right gang the Proud Boys, “we don’t go and street fight and yell back at people.” Text messages shown to the jury show Oath Keepers organising allies, including members of the Proud Boys, to prepare for 6 January, 2021.
Mr Rhodes will continue his testimony on 7 November.
