Capitol attack to oppose the presidential

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Prosecutors alleged the defendants planned ahead of the transition in favor of unlawfully keeping Trump in office, seizing the joint Congress' certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 as "means to that end."

They made the historic decision to oppose the peaceful transfer using "any means necessary," attempting to upend centuries of lawful presidential transfers, government attorneys argued.

During approximately eight weeks of testimony — plagued by delays that included a Rhodes' COVID diagnosis — the jury of Washington, D.C. residents witnessed a legal battle between prosecutors and defense attorneys over whether the actions and words of the defendants were seditious calls to action or hyperbolic "bravado."

Capitol Riot Seditious Conspiracy
FILE - Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known buy phone number list as the Oath Keepers speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017.
Susan Walsh / AP
Government witnesses — including former members of the Oath Keepers group, federal investigators, and law enforcement officers who served on Jan. 6, 2021 — testified that as soon as the presidential election had been decided in Mr. Biden's favor, Rhodes and his associates worked to oppose the lawful transfer of power, talking of civil war and ultimately amassing weapons in a Virginia hotel room before some headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and breached the building.

Prosecutors presented evidence including encrypted chat messages, recorded meetings, and social media posts at trial to support its argument that the defendants had made detailed plans to head to Washington, D.C., ahead of Jan. 6. Government lawyers alleged those plans included coordinating movements and even "executing" traitors. This was not mere rhetoric, they argued. It was dangerous action.