Washington – A one-time member of the far-right Oath Keepers advised a jury that he was led to consider that the group's chief, Stewart Rhodes, had the cellphone quantity belonging to a U.S. Secret Service agent and that Rhodes had been in touch with that particular person within the months earlier than the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
John Zimmerman, a former member of the North Carolina chapter of the militia group and navy veteran, testified that Rhodes advised him of the alleged reference to the agent throughout a Sept 2020, cellphone name between Rhodes and the person who Zimmerman thought was the Secret Service agent forward of a Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Zimmerman, referred to as as a authorities witness within the case, mentioned that though he could not hear the opposite finish of the decision, Rhodes led him to consider he had spoken with the agent about gun legal guidelines within the D.C. space forward of the rally.
Rhodes and 4 codefendants – Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson, and Thomas Caldwell – are on trial for a number of fees stemming from their alleged planning for and participation within the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, together with the excessive crime of seditious conspiracy. Every has pleaded not responsible.
U.S. Secret Service officers advised CBS Information that isn't unusual for demonstrators or leaders of protest teams to contact members of the U.S. Secret Service for logistical causes, noting that it's routine for demonstrators to succeed in out to the U.S. Secret Service forward of their look at a presidential occasion.
The Secret Service isn't conscious of any allegations of prison wrongdoing amongst their ranks linked to the Rhodes case, the officers mentioned.
Prosecutors referred to as Zimmerman – who mentioned he was a member of the Oath Keepers group for about three months – to debate the group's planning and coordination forward of occasions in September and November of 2020, particularly, a march in help of former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., after the 2020 election.
Forward of the Nov. 14, 2020 demonstration, the witness mentioned he joined Rhodes and different Oath Keepers at Calwell's Virginia dwelling, the place they deliberate their presence within the capital metropolis. Zimmerman mentioned they had been headed to D.C. to supply protecting providers within the space and put together for a possible name to motion from Trump ought to the previous president invoke the Revolt Act.
Based on Zimmerman, the Oath Keepers transported greater than a dozen firearms, together with lengthy weapons and handguns, to simply exterior Washington, D.C., within the expectation that Trump would invoke a decades-old regulation to take up arms in opposition to what Zimmerman characterised as a "rogue authorities" and overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
However Trump's name by no means got here, and Zimmerman advised the jury that the group largely offered private safety element to higher-profile members within the protest and had been ready to provide medical care if wanted. He mentioned they had been significantly on excessive alert for any violence from their perceived political rivals, members of the Anifa or Black Lives Matter teams.
Zimmerman testified that Rhodes' want to entice these opponents into committing acts of violence precipitated a rift within the group that finally drove Zimmerman to go away the Oath Keepers. Zimmerman mentioned he noticed the North Carolina contingent as an extension of regulation enforcement and wished no half in Rhodes' plan to incite violence.
Nonetheless, the witness mentioned, he and different Oath Keepers got here ready for violence and Trump's name to motion.
"We would wish the weapons within the occasion that President Trump invoked the Revolt Act," he advised prosecutors in court docket on Thursday, including that his automobile had "loads of room to hold weapons" from Caldwell's Virginia property to simply exterior the Washington, D.C. limits, the place gun legal guidelines are a lot stricter.
Based on Zimmerman, considerations about gun legal guidelines had been the impetus for Rhodes' alleged name to the obvious Secret Service agent in September 2020, months earlier than the rally in Washington, D.C. Zimmerman mentioned the Oath Keepers group staged a "Fast Reactionary Power" (QRF) 4 to 5 miles away from the place then-President Trump was set to talk in case violence broke out they usually wanted to reply. The aim of the decision, Zimmerman mentioned, was to determine "boundaries."
Firearms and weapons should not permitted inside areas secured by the Secret Service, officers mentioned, however areas exterior of a safe zone, close to presidential occasions, are underneath the jurisdiction of state and native authorities. The U.S. Secret Service does not dictate what occurs exterior a safe zone.
Zimmerman didn't come to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 2021, however prosecutors allege the Oath Keepers who did – together with the 5 defendants on trial – once more staged an armed QRF, this time in a Virginia lodge. They're accused of amassing weapons and provides and investigators say Caldwell even regarded into utilizing a ship on Jan. 6 to ferry the QRF into the town ought to Trump name upon them.
Based on court docket paperwork filed earlier this yr forward of trial, one other member of the North Carolina Oath Keepers, William Wilson, advised prosecutors that on the night of Jan. 6, Rhodes repeatedly implored an unnamed particular person on the cellphone "to inform President Trump to name upon teams just like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the switch of energy."
Throughout cross examination on Thursday, protection attorneys requested Zimmerman about his ideas on the disorganization of the Oath Keepers and his choice to go away the group, attempting to poke holes within the authorities's rivalry that the group engaged in an organized conspiracy in opposition to the federal government on Jan. 6.
"I really like Stewart Rhodes, I really like Jessica. I really like all of them," Zimmerman mentioned, "I do not like what they did and I do not like a few of the occasions we have gone by."
Within the first days of the weeks-long trial, prosecutors have accused Rhodes and his associates of planning to convey arms to the D.C. space to make use of power to stop the peaceable switch of presidential energy.
In a recorded portion of a Nov. 9, 2020 name performed in court docket on Tuesday, Rhodes allegedly advised attendees, "You gotta be keen to go to D.C. and street-fight Antifa…If the struggle comes, let the struggle come." They had been allegedly planning to Nov. 14 Trump rally, in keeping with the FBI agent who took the stand.
Nicole Sganga contributed to this report.