WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes “called for war with all of its horrors and all of its violence” as the “architect” of a conspiracy to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power that included the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal prosecutor told a Washington jury.
“On Jan. 6 our democracy was under attack,” Assistant US Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy said during closing arguments Friday in the trial of Rhodes and four others on seditious conspiracy charges. “For these defendants, it was ‘everything we trained for.’”
Rakoczy cited testimony by Rhodes during the seven-week trial to show that he was serious in his calls to oppose the government by force. She argued that Rhodes and his co-defendants believed they were “self-anointed” to uphold their version of the election and the law. For example, Rakoczy said Rhodes wanted Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to let the military and militia throw out the election results, in which President Joe Biden beat his predecessor Donald Trump.
