WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors cast the Oath Keepers as a threat to democracy in the first seditious conspiracy trial to stem from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Describing the long tradition of a peaceful transfer of power after U.S. presidential elections, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said in opening arguments Monday that the right-wing militia group sought to halt that “by whatever means necessary,” planning “an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of democracy.”
The Oath Keepers “descended upon D.C. to attack not just the Capitol, not just Congress, not just the government, but our country itself,” Nestler told the jury in federal court in Washington.
