Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes did his best to wipe his hands of the violent disaster that was Jan. 6, 2021, on Monday, claiming on the witness stand that “it was stupid” of his allies to storm the Capitol. He also went on a bizarre tangent about his alleged romantic escapades.
Despite her steadfast indications to the contrary, Rhodes claimed in federal court that he was involved in a romantic relationship with Kellye SoRelle, the former general counsel for his far-right militia group.
“We were dating,” Rhodes told D.C. federal court jurors presiding over a case in which he and others are accused of seditious conspiracy—a Civil War-era charge connected to their alleged planning before the riot.
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Rhodes made the claim when he was asked during cross-examination whether he had enough control over the attorney to get her to stay silent about the Oath Keepers’ role in the riots. The militia founder smiled before answering: “Do we have to get into kink, really?”
“Outside the bedroom, she’s definitely a type A. Inside the bedroom, she definitely switches to a sub,” he told Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy.
The claim came hours into Rhodes’ time on the stand, during which he offered one of his strongest denials yet of involvement in the insurrection.
“I think it was stupid to go into the Capitol. One, because it wasn’t our mission,” Rhodes said. “And two, it opened the door for our political enemies to persecute us. And that’s what happened and here we are.”
Rhodes claimed that more than 100 members of his far-right militia group went to the nation’s Capitol simply to provide security for Jan. 6 rally-goers and speakers. But once the riots began, several Oath Keeper members went “off-mission” and breached the Capitol, disrupting the electoral certification of President Joe Biden, he said.
“I didn’t want them getting wrapped up into all the nonsense with Trump supporters,” Rhodes insisted on Monday. “My goal was to make sure that no one got wrapped up in that Charlie Foxtrot going on inside the Capitol.”
Prosecutors, however, allege that Rhodes and four other militia members spent months training and planning “an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy” in an attempt to stop the certification of Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 election. While Rhodes did not enter the building, prosecutors allege that he directed his group from afar like a “general” as they stormed the Capitol. To prove their argument, jurors have been shown surveillance footage and text messages that allegedly show the lengths Oath Keepers went to in order to execute their mission.
Last week, jurors also saw a recording of Rhodes four days after the riot—in which he is heard saying his only regret was not bringing rifles to the Capitol.
“We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang fuckin’ Pelosi from the lamppost,” Rhodes said. (On Monday, Rhodes said he made that comment after a “couple of drinks at dinner.”)
On the stand Monday, Rhodes told jurors that he spent the morning of the riots at a hotel—and only went to the Capitol when he learned of the news that the barricades to the government building had been breached by rioters. He said that “it never crossed” his mind that Oath Keepers had entered the Capitol and insisted that he never suggested that anyone should go disrupt the electoral certification. Rhodes claimed that it wasn’t until later that evening that he learned his rogue group had stormed the Capitol, and he immediately voiced his concerns with their actions.
“It was not our mission that day to enter the Capitol for any reason,” he added under cross-examination.
“I think that anyone who assaults a police officer should be prosecuted,” Rhodes said about what he called the “horrific” events at the Capitol. “We have an absolutely zero tolerance for someone putting hands on a police officer."
Rhodes and his fellow alleged co-conspirators—Kelly Meggs, a leader of the Florida Oath Keepers chapter; Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer; member Kenneth Harrelson; and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group—have pleaded not guilty.
During cross-examination, prosecutors grilled Rhodes about his previous characterization of the group he founded around 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy also showed jurors videos of Rhodes with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and footage of other Oath Keepers acting menacingly at various social justice protests.
“With martial arts training I could use almost anything” as a weapon, Rhodes admitted on the stand at one point. Later, he conceded that he’d urged his followers “not to recognize Biden as the legitimate winner” of the 2020 election—claims that spurred the Jan. 6 attack, prosecutors allege.
When Rhodes later argued that he was not aware of what some of the other Oath Keepers were planning in a group chat, Rakoczy pointed out that he was the group’s chairman.
“Sir, the buck stops with you in this organization, right?” the prosecutor added, to which Rhodes insisted he was not responsible for members who go off mission.
“Well that’s convenient,” Rakoczy retorted.
