Oath Keepers leader: No plan to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes told jurors on Monday there was no plan for his band of extremists to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as he tries to clear his name in his seditious conspiracy trial.

Taking the stand in his defense for a second day, Rhodes testified that he had no idea that his followers were going to join the pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol and that he was upset after he found out that some did.

Rhodes said he believed it was stupid for any Oath Keepers to go into the Capitol. He insisted that was not their “mission.”

“There was no plan to enter the building for any purpose,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes is on trial with four others for what prosecutors have alleged was a plan to stage an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power from Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors have tried to show that the riot was not a spur-of-the-moment protest for the Oath Keepers but part of a serious, weekslong plot.

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