Days after January 6, 2021, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes allegedly attempted to warn then-President Donald Trump in a covertly recorded meeting, pleading with him to use the Insurrection Act and warning there would be “fighting here on US soil.”
On January 10, Jason Alpers, a US military veteran who testified on Wednesday in the seditious conspiracy trial against the Oath Keepers’ leaders, claimed to have met with Oath Keepers members at an electronics store parking lot. Alpers claimed that Rhodes had a message for Trump and that his former coworker had asked him to meet with Rhodes.
Alpers didn’t elaborate on his relationships with the former president. Alpers secretly taped the meeting on January 10. The video, presented in court on Wednesday, captured Rhodes saying, “If he’s not going to do the proper thing, and he’s just going to let himself be removed illegally, then we should have brought firearms.”
According to the recording, Rhodes said of the attack on the US Capitol, “We could have fixed it right there.” I would hang Nancy Pelosi from a lamppost. Phillip Linder, a defence attorney for Rhodes, said under cross-examination that Alpers had previously referred to Rhodes’ remarks at the meeting as “rhetoric” in comments to the FBI. Alpers also stated during cross-examination that at least one meeting participant was intoxicated.
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Alpers claimed that before the encounter, he turned on a recording device in the form of a thumb drive and tucked it away in his pocket. Alpers stated that when he approached a group of individuals he thought were the Oath Keepers he was meant to meet, one demanded to know who he was and told him to hide his phone in a nearby car.
Alpers claimed Rhodes questioned him at the start of the discussion about why Trump had not yet put the Insurrection Act into effect. Alpers said, according to the video, “It’s pretty hard to get to him right now.”
Recordings played during Oath Keepers trial yesterday included leader saying he would assassinate Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When people tell us who they are, we should believe them. https://t.co/tmC8rwJ7bd
— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) November 3, 2022
In the audio, Rhodes mocked Trump for failing to “drain the freaking swamp” and detailed how his adversaries would kill him and his family if the president did nothing. Rhodes is also said to have echoed this idea in a letter he urged Alpers to present to Trump.
According to the video, Rhodes added, “They are going to do to him and his family what they did to the Czar and his family.” “The Trump family will experience the same thing. And you do. They may do it in jail, where they may be raped and murdered, but they will still perish. That is the truth. Not only them but also all of us.
Rhodes was heard on the recording stating, “here will undoubtedly be a battle here on US territory.” regardless of what you anticipate, they’ll. He is coming soon. There is no way to escape it. It is far too late. Rhodes did not attempt to deny his appearance on the recording.
Rhodes allegedly issued the last threat to Trump in a letter he wrote to Alpers and had read aloud to the jury: “s veterans will die in combat on US soil fighting against traitors who YOU turned all of the powers of the presidency to.”According to the recording, Alpers resisted Rhodes many times during the encounter.
In his testimony, he described himself as “sitting here wondering why in the world I am here.”Alpers believed that sending Trump the communication he characterised as “one-sided” and””Xtreme””would damage his reputation with his contacts.
Alpers, according to testimony, never relayed the message to Trump or anybody associated with the administration. A few months later, he returned the video, and the note Rhodes had written to the FBI. Rhodes has entered a not-guilty plea on the counts of seditious conspiracy.