WASHINGTON — A Florida member of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection accused Congress of obstructing the criminal case against him, signaling one possible long-shot defense at a trial set for July.
The House select committee probing the attack on the Capitol is tainting the jury pool in Washington by unfairly portraying those who participated in the riot as “monstrous domestic terrorists,” Kelly Meggs, one of the Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, said in a court filing Wednesday.
Meggs and other Oath Keepers, including founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, entered pleas of not guilty yesterday. Meggs argues that the committee’s hearings are “perjury traps” that aren’t restrained in ways that presume innocence, as they are in court. Rhodes, along with the leader of the Proud Boys group, were subpoenaed by the committee in November.
