Stewart Rhodes wrote message to Trump after Jan. 6 calling on him to 'save the Republic' and arrest members of Congress
"Jan. 6 prosecutors seek 25 years for Oath Keepers’ Rhodes"
Give him the max. In the most unpleasant max. There is always some information many of us miss. There is always some none of us on the outside ever see. I don't recall reading of Rhodes's message to Trump.
The message, which was not delivered, was turned over to the FBI, a witness told jurors as the government nears the end of its argument in the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.Susan Walsh / AP file
Nov. 3, 2022, 3:00 AM AEDT / Updated Nov. 3, 2022, 3:48 AM AEDT By Ryan J. Reilly and Daniel Barnes
WASHINGTON — Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes wrote a message intended for former President Donald Trump in the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling upon Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to stay in power and arrest members of Congress.
“If you don’t then Biden/Kamala will turn all that power on you, your family, and all of us. You and your family will be imprisoned and killed,” Rhodes wrote in a message presented in court Wednesday. “You and your children will die in prison.”
The message, which also called for Trump to have members of Congress and state legislators arrested, was not delivered.
Jason Alpers, a government witness in the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial .. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/oath-keeper-stormed-capitol-says-thought-jan-6-was-bastille-type-attac-rcna54877 , testified Wednesday that he had a recording device in his pocket that was disguised as a thumb drive when he met with Rhodes on Jan. 10, 2021, just a few days after the Jan. 6 attack. Alpers said he bought the recording device on his own and had previously used it. Alpers testified that he was not working on behalf of a federal law enforcement agency when he made the recording.
The meeting took place in a parking lot of an electronics store in Texas. In the audio, Rhodes asks others at the meeting to "get rid of your phones," and Alpers testified that everyone put their phones in a car to make the meeting more secure.
VIDEO - Justice Department lays out Oath Keepers’ alleged plans for armed rebellion on Jan. 6 Oct. 4, 20220 4:03
Alpers, the owner of a software development company and a former military special operations operator who was deployed overseas, said he started communicating with the FBI months after the attack on the Capitol and his meeting with Rhodes. Alpers testified that he had connections to Trump's inner circle and said he could get a message to Trump "indirectly."
When he met with Rhodes on Jan. 10, he had Rhodes type a message intended for Trump on his phone. Alpers ultimately did not send the message to Trump or any of Trump’s associates, he testified.
“You must do as Lincoln did," Rhodes wrote in the message. "He arrested congressmen, state legislators, and issued a warrant for SCOTUS Chief Justice Taney. Take command like Washington would. ... Go down in history as the savior of the Republic, not a man who surrendered it."
----- [Insert: Taney Arrest Warrant Edit File:Question book-new.svg This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)
The Taney Arrest Warrant is a recent conjectural controversy in Abraham Lincoln scholarship. The standard version of the story avers that in late May or early June 1861 President Lincoln secretly ordered an arrest warrant for Roger B. Taney, the circuit-riding Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, but abandoned the proposal. The arrest order is said to have been in response to Taney's Circuit Judge ruling in Ex parte Merryman .. https://civilwar-history.fandom.com/wiki/Ex_parte_Merryman , which found Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus to be unconstitutional. P - The main details of the story come from a single document written in the 1880s. https://civilwar-history.fandom.com/wiki/Taney_Arrest_Warrant
Kind of ironic that Rhodes is calling for civil war while at the same time calling for Trump to take action similar to that which Lincoln took to stop a civil war.
President Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus is challenged P - On May 27, 1861, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland issues Ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (the legal procedure that prevents the government from holding an individual indefinitely without showing cause) in Maryland. P - Early in the war, President Lincoln faced many difficulties due to the fact that Washington was located in slave territory. Although Maryland did not secede, Southern sympathies were widespread. On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. Those arrested could be held without indictment or arraignment. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincolns-suspension-of-habeas-corpus-is-challenged ] -----
“I am here for you and so are all my men. We will come help you if you need us. Military and police. And so will your millions of supporters," Rhodes wrote.
Alpers said he disagreed with the path Rhodes was laying out, so he did not send the message.
“It would have wrapped me into agreeing with that ideology in some way, which I did not,” Alpers said. “I didn’t want to get involved."
Rhodes and four other Oath Keepers — Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — are on trial charged with seditious conspiracy for their actions on Jan. 6. The Justice Department alleges that Rhodes and members of his organization plotted .. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/third-oath-keepers-defendant-pleads-guilty-sedition-capitol-riot-case-rcna27294 .. to oppose the peaceful transfer of power and stockpiled guns in “quick reaction forces” just outside Washington that could be taken into the city at a moment’s notice. Other members alleged to be part of the conspiracy will go on trial this month.
Prosecutors on Wednesday also played some recordings of Rhodes that Alpers captured, including audio of Rhodes talking about civil war in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack.
“Fight’s coming. I’m not f---ing living on my knees, no f---ing way. … We’re just the tip of the iceberg. There’s millions of others that feel the same way about this s--- that we do," Rhodes said in a recording.
“How’s he want to go down in history? He’ll go down in history as the greatest president since George Washington if he does the right thing," Rhodes continued.
Members of the Oath Keepers at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP file
Rhodes said in the recording that his "only regret" about Jan. 6 was that they didn't bring firearms with them.
“We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang f---in’ Pelosi from the lamppost," Rhodes said.
Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle has said Rhodes was asking her for her Trump world contacts in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. As NBC News has reported ... https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/oath-keeper-charged-jan-6-attack-texted-andrew-giuliani-election-rcna49483 , SoRelle was in touch with Andrew Giuliani, a Trump White House official and the son of Rudy Giuliani, after the November 2020 election. SoRelle, who had a relationship with Rhodes, was charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack in September and pleaded not guilty.
The government indicated Wednesday that prosecutors would present two more witnesses, both FBI special agents, before they rested their case.
Oath Keepers members Joshua James, Brian Ulrich and William Todd Wilson all pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. Several other Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to other charges, including two — Jason Dolan and Graydon Young — who testified at the trial. Dolan testified that he was prepared to die to keep Trump in office. While Young testified that he was "acting like a traitor" on Jan. 6, Dolan testified that he was hoping to scare members of Congress.
“I wanted them to be afraid of me,” Dolan has testified. “If they weren’t going to, in my perspective, do the right thing, maybe they could be scared into doing the right thing."
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
Daniel Barnes reports for NBC News, based in Washington.
The arrogance of these assholes --- Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes asks for a sentence of time served after seditious conspiracy conviction
By Robert Legare, Kathryn Watson
VIDEO
May 8, 2023 / 1:29 PM / CBS News
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is asking for a sentence of time served, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors argued was a violent plan to ensure former President Donald Trump remained in the White House, though he had lost the 2020 presidential election.
The Justice Department is seeking a 25-year prison sentence for Rhodes. A jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Rhodes in November for his role in the riot at the Capitol. Rhodes has been held in jail in Virginia since his arrest in January 2022.
Rhodes' co-defendant and Florida Oath Keeper leader Kelly Meggs was also convicted of seditious conspiracy at the time, as were four other Oath Keepers at a separate trial.
Rhodes' attorneys say his founding of the group and his military service should serve as a credit to his character.
"The character of the Oath Keepers reflects the character of the man who created it," a memo filed Monday by Rhodes' attorneys reads, arguing the group was created to assist in disaster relief and community protection.
Witness testimony and evidence presented at trial showed some members of the organization joined for various reasons before the events around the 2020 presidential election, ranging from disaster relief and community protection to advancing political goals.
But prosecutors said at trial the group's planning and rhetoric took a turn leading up to the Capitol attack as some leaders, including Rhodes, sought to convey a message of violent resistance to the peaceful transfer of power. A former leader of the group testified last year his North Carolina contingent split from the larger organization after an alleged disagreement over exhorting violence in a crowd.
Prosecutors alleged Rhodes and his co-defendants planned ahead of the attack to oppose the peaceful presidential transition of power and keep Donald Trump in office, and sought to accomplish this by trying to interfere with Congress' certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.
Rhodes, who graduated from Yale Law School, was alleged by prosecutors to be the "architect" of the plan, urging Trump to try to hold onto power and to invoke the Insurrection Act.
Rhodes' sentencing is scheduled for later this month.
Last week, jurors on a different case convicted four leaders of the Proud Boys, another extremist group, of seditious conspiracy.
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