Oath Keepers trial

Jessica Watkins, a former bar owner in Ohio and an Army veteran, took the stand on Wednesday in a high-stakes trial charging Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four other militia members with the rarely used charge of seditious conspiracy.

Watkins, who has been locked up for two years following her arrest in the case, said she did not intend to stop certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory when she stormed the Capitol in a military stack formation with other Oath Keepers.

[...]

Watkins explained she was given a “steady diet” of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election from “Infowars” host Alex Jones.

  The Hill

Force fed, I guess.

Watkins, Rhodes and three other Oath Keeper members on trial face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the seditious conspiracy charges. Closing arguments could begin as early as this week.

[...]

When he took the stand, Rhodes also said it was “stupid” for Oath Keepers members to charge into the Capitol and repeated that he never meant to overturn certification of the 2020 election.

Rather, Rhodes said he and other militia members were awaiting orders from former President Trump to invoke an old series of laws known as the Insurrection Act, which allows the commander-in-chief to call up a militia to quell a domestic disturbance.

Then it follows that they created the disturbance in order to have Trump make the call. Which is, of course what the plan was, and Trump was in on it.

But Watkins on Wednesday said there was no plan to invoke the Insurrection Act.

[...]

“There was talk of the Insurrection Act, but no one was taking it seriously."

[...]

[Another Oath Keeper on trial, Thomas] Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer, said he was not serious when he wrote messages to the militia group about ferrying “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River into Oath Keepers’ “waiting arms,” according to the AP.

Caldwell called those messages “creative writing.”

Sure.

At least Watkins and Caldwell - or their attorneys - understood Rhodes' admission they were waiting for the Insurrection Act call up was a bad mistake.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.