Who are the Oath Keepers on trial for seditious conspiracy?

WASHINGTON – Stewart Rhodes and eight others who prosecutors say were members of his extremist Oath Keepers group face trial on charges of seditious conspiracy and other counts this fall in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Rhodes and four others will go first, with opening statements set to begin Monday. The rest are set for trial in November.

A 13-count indictment charges the nine with conspiring to use force to oppose the lawful transfer of power to President Biden. Charging papers accuse the group of actions including transporting equipment and firearms to Washington, D.C., and staging weapons outside the city, ready “to answer Rhodes’ call to take up arms.” Some are also accused of forcing entry into the Capitol and of deleting evidence afterward.

Rhodes and the others have pleaded not guilty.

Here’s who is facing trial:

• Stewart Rhodes

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File

Stewart Rhodes, 56, founded the extremist anti-government Oath Keepers in 2009, recruiting from U.S. law enforcement and military veterans and predicting that the federal government would seize Americans’ guns and impose a totalitarian socialist state. A Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper and aide to libertarian congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.), Rhodes did not enter the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, but prosecutors allege that he directed others in his group. He had openly called for civil war.

Rhodes has claimed his group stored firearms in Northern Virginia in case “Quick Reaction Force” teams were needed if President Donald Trump invoked the Insurrection Act and mobilized armed militias to keep him in office. In Rhodes’s view, such an invocation would have given his group legal cause to act. Prosecutors have countered that the Oath Keepers were using the Insurrection Act as legal cover for their crimes and that even if those on trial sincerely believed Trump could have invoked the act, he did not and was not empowered to authorize a conspiracy to attack Congress or the presidential transition.

Charged with: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, obstruction of an official proceeding, tampering with documents or proceedings.

• Thomas Caldwell

Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Va., a defendant charged with seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, arrives at the federal courthouse, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, in Washington. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Caldwell, 68, is a retired Navy intelligence officer and private federal contractor who lives in Berryville, Va. He has said he was not formally a member of the Oath Keepers. But court records show he hosted Oath Keepers at his home and joined Oath Keepers as they participated in a pro-Trump rally after the November 2020 election. He then helped members from various states line up hotel rooms in advance of Jan. 6, including in Ballston, a neighborhood in Arlington, Va., where a number of weapons were placed to be available to a “Quick Reaction Force,” prosecutors said. Caldwell did not enter the Capitol and has said that much of his rhetoric, such as a text message saying “lets storm the place and hang the traitors,” was hyperbole.

Charged with: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, tampering with documents or proceedings.

• Kenneth Harrelson

Harrelson, 41, a former Army sergeant and welder from Titusville, Fla., organized Oath Keepers leadership calls, joined in “unconventional military training” and was named “Ground Team lead” for Jan. 6 by fellow Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs, prosecutors alleged. Prosecutors say Harrelson brought weapons to Washington and was one of the first Oath Keepers to join a mob gathering at the East Capitol steps, before falling in with a “stack” of co-defendants – a line formation designed for a forced entry – who forced their way past police.

• Kelly Meggs

Meggs, 53, an auto dealership manager of Dunnellon, Fla., is accused of acting as the Oath Keepers “Florida state lead” on Jan. 6, paying for two Ballston hotel rooms occupied by armed “Quick Reaction Force” teams and setting two entry points for them to come to Washington by road or boat, if needed. Prosecutors say Rhodes and Meggs spoke at 2:32 p.m., minutes before a group filed up the Capitol steps and joined a mob that forced its way through the East Rotunda doors. Meggs had several contacts with Trump political confidant Roger Stone, according to court filings.

Prosecutors say he claimed to have organized an “alliance” with Florida Three Percenters and Proud Boys (two other extremist groups) and “orchestrated a plan” with the latter group ahead of Jan. 6. Prosecutors say he told one recruit, “Tell your friend this isn’t a Rally!!” – suggesting, prosecutors said, that he was preparing for violence.

• Jessica Watkins

Jessica Watkins. Montgomery County Jail via AP, File

Watkins, an Army veteran and bartender, is accused of merging her local Ohio militia with the Oath Keepers in 2020. She became a recruiter and organizer in advance of the Capitol attack and was involved in plans to store weapons outside the city, according to prosecutors. Like Rhodes, she expressed hope that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy militias to the Capitol. She entered the building in a military-style “stack” with other Oath Keepers as rioters breached doors on the east side, telling them to “push” and “get in there,” court records say. She has said she is now “appalled” by what happened on Jan. 6, and her attorney has said that she was misled into believing “the false and inflammatory claims of the former president.”

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Those charged with Rhodes but set to go to trial in November:

• Joseph Hackett

Hackett, a Sarasota chiropractor, is accused of helping lead a group of Florida Oath Keepers that traveled to Washington, D.C., and entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 in a military-style “stack.” He trained with other Oath Keepers in the use of firearms in advance of the riot, according to prosecutors, and took long guns to a Ballston hotel where the group had positioned a “Quick Reaction Force.” In planning for Jan. 6, he urged other members of the group to use anonymous and untraceable communications, prosecutors say.

• Roberto Minuta

Minuta was designated by Rhodes as “a lifetime Oath Keeper” in May 2020 for keeping his New Jersey tattoo parlor open in defiance of pandemic restrictions, according to court records. He and other Oath Keepers were with Stone at a Washington, D.C., hotel on Jan. 6, according to court documents.

When he learned that the Capitol had been breached, prosecutors say, Minuta shouted, “Now we’re talking, that’s what I came up here for!” and rode a golf cart from Stone’s hotel over to join the riot with other Oath Keepers who have since pleaded guilty. Minuta is accused of taunting and berating police officers outside the Capitol, then entering the building armed with bear spray in a second Oath Keepers “stack.” His wife has said he went into the building only to provide aid.

• David Moerschel

Prosecutors allege that Moerschel, 44, of Punta Gorda, Fla., began joining other members of the Oath Keepers in his home state as early as Nov. 9, 2020, to start planning a trip to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. They allege that he helped transport guns and ammunition to a hotel in Ballston for use by a “Quick Reaction Force.”

He was photographed as part of a “stack” of Oath Keepers that helped rioters break police lines on the east side of the Capitol, and prosecutors allege that he fought with police in a failed attempt to enter the Senate chamber. He and others with him then searched in vain for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Moerschel is married with three small children, according to a fundraising website started by his wife.

• Edward Vallejo

Vallejo, a 64-year-old Army veteran who lives in Phoenix, traveled from Arizona to the Washington, D.C., area with other Oath Keepers, staying in the Comfort Inn Ballston and overseeing the weapons and ammunition meant for the “Quick Reaction Force,” prosecutors allege. They say that Vallejo was on standby across the Potomac River from the city, awaiting a call from the Oath Keepers to bring the weapons into the city, and that he spoke on a podcast on Jan. 6 about the possibility of “armed conflict” and “guerrilla war.” The indictment alleges that he messaged the group’s leaders, “QRF standing by at hotel. Just say the word.” But prosecutors do not say he entered Washington, D.C., that day.

Charged with: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties.