American prosecutors brought in 4 more Oath Keepers and tied them to Stewart Rhodes, their leader. This effectively brings the 2nd trial for seditious conspiracy on the January 6 rioters. Prosecutors informed jurors that the four were in constant and direct contact with Stewart and participated in his call for an armed uprising to help Trump retain power despite losing the presidential elections.
Troy Edwards, the Assistant Attorney said that the defendants backed Stewart’s call to armed rebellion and sedition. He alleged they upset the constitutional setup by their attempt to prevent a peaceful handover of power through force in what is a first in the history of the nation.
The prosecutors alleged that the Oath Keepers were even willing to resort to violence and force to enforce their interpretation of constitutional law and order on the rest of the country. The defendants were virtually at war with the federal government and keyed up the rioters at the Capitol to prepare for an intense revolutionary war.
The Oath Keepers Defense Team Has Said That Prosecutors Had Rushed To A Judgement
The Oath Keepers’ legal team panned the Justice Dept. for rushing to judgment in the case. The attorney alleged that the prosecutor had selectively picked fragments of pompous conversation over a period of months and tried to lump defendants who were strangers to one another. They alleged that the whole line of attack devised by the prosecution was a warped and incomplete story.
Scott Weinberg, attorney for David Moerschel, 44, one of the defendants, said that the people were not trigger-happy and only had sent messages that seemed provocative. He alleged that Stewart was manipulative and incompetent as a leader and that the right-wing television evangelist had lived off the $50 that members had and used the January 6 setting to get maximum publicity. Weinberg said that the group was merely an elderly, overweight gathering of people who were playing military games and not some highly belligerent and militaristic group.
