WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors worked Monday to link four Oath Keepers defendants with Stewart Rhodes, the militia’s founder who was convicted last month of conspiring against the government, while defense attorneys portrayed him as an ineffective leader who'd steered his followers astray.
Rhodes and co-defendant Kelly Meggs were the first two defendants convicted of the rarely used seditious conspiracy charged in more than a decade. Three other co-defendants were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other charges, including conspiring to obstruct the official proceeding on Jan. 6 and to impede members of Congress. Only one defendant, Thomas Caldwell, of Virginia, was acquitted of all three alleged conspiracies.
On Monday, opening statements began in the trial of four more Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy: Roberto Minuta, a New York tattoo artist who entered the U.S. Capitol Building as part of what prosecutors have dubbed “Stack 2;” Joseph Hackett and David Moerschel, both Florida residents who entered the building behind Meggs in “Stack 1;” and Edward Vallejo, a U.S. Army veteran and Arizona resident who, prosecutors alleged, stayed behind at a Virginia hotel to man the militia’s quick reaction force (QRF) on Jan. 6. All four defendants face additional charges of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. Minuta, Hackett and Moerschel are also accused of discarding or deleting items from their cell phones in an effort to obstruct a federal grand jury.
Although Rhodes was not in the courtroom Monday, his name was invoked repeatedly by Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Edwards during the government’s opening statements. Edwards previewed evidence jurors would see of direct communication between Hackett and Rhodes – as well as with Meggs, who was the Florida state leader for the militia. Edwards also drew a direct line between Minuta’s rhetoric leading up to Jan. 6 and what Rhodes was saying.
“[Minuta] called everyone to prepare and swarm those streets,” Edwards said, adding, “The comparison between Rhodes’ and Minuta’s words is staggering.”
Jurors also saw a preview of a video Minuta recorded of himself in which he told viewers “Jesus said sell your cloak and buy a sword” – a reference to Luke 22:36.
“Millions will die,” Minuta said in the video. “Millions will die. So what? Get your f***ing soul ready.”
It remained unclear whether Rhodes himself would play a direct role in the trial. After his conviction, Rhodes’ attorneys told reporters he would be willing to testify as a witness. At least one attorney representing a defendant in the second group told WUSA9 they were considering taking Rhodes up on that offer.
Rhodes testified in his own defense during the first trial group – attempting to present to the jury an image of a “constitutional expert,” as his attorney phrased it, who mounted a principled, but legal, objection to the results of the 2020 election. In Rhodes’ telling, he was the leader of a group of patriotic veterans who were concerned about securing communities from left-wing violence and election integrity. If he were to be called during this trial, however, he could face hostile cross-examination by defense counsel seeking to portray him as a false prophet who led their clients astray.
During his opening statements, defense attorney Scott Weinberg, representing Moerschel, told jurors he was no fan of Rhodes. He said there were two charismatic figures who were misleading people on Jan. 6: former President Donald Trump and Rhodes.
“I feel that Mr. Rhodes is a right-wing televangelist,” Weinberg said. “He’s a faulty leader. I think we’re going to learn he lives off other people’s dues and manipulates them. But we’re also going to learn he’s incompetent.”
Attorney Matthew Peed, representing Vallejo, told jurors he thought Rhodes hadn't lived up to the "potential" of his Yale Law education.
Rhodes’ competence, or lack thereof, was the subject of lengthy testimony during the first trial when Oath Keepers operations leader Michael “Whip” Green was called by the defense as a witness. He described Rhodes as a blowhard who led a group of disorganized, over-the-hill followers who wanted to camp out and “talk about old military s***.” Greene, like every Oath Keeper witness called to the stand, also denied there was ever a plan to assault the Capitol or stop the certification of the 2020 election.
All four defendants in the second trial group echoed that claim, saying none of them had conspired with anyone to do anything. Defense attorney Angela Halim, representing Hackett, said her client had never even met or heard of any of his co-defendants prior to Jan. 6.
“The government is in overdrive manipulating the evidence to make it look as though there were shared goals, a unity of purpose and a meeting of the minds between all these individuals all over the country,” Halim said.
Halim, making an argument similar to the one defense attorney David Fischer presented for Thomas Caldwell during the first trial, accused the government of “cherry picking” evidence to support a pre-conceived narrative of the case.
“It was as though they had tunnel vision with blinders on, only grabbing those pieces of evidence that seemingly confirmed their early conclusions,” Halim said.
Like the first trial group, the second seditious conspiracy trial was expected to last for at least five-to-six weeks and encompass testimony from dozens of witnesses. The first trial took nearly 10 weeks to complete, although it was lengthened by a number of delays – not the least of which was Rhodes testing positive for COVID-19 in the middle of the government’s case.
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