WASHINGTON (Transatlantic Today) – On a Zoom call from a prison in Oklahoma, the founder of a right-wing organization whose followers have been convicted with high treason in association with the attack on the US Capitol spent nearly 6 hours speaking before the Jan. 6 committee.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, who is being held by the United States Marshals Service, appeared before the House panel virtually from the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, according to one of his lawyers. As per NBC NEWS, the correctional institution seems to be under contract with the US Marshals, who are taking Rhodes to a jail in Washington, D.C.
According to lawyer Jonathan Moseley, Rhodes asserted his Fifth Amendment rights 20 to 30 times but ended up discussing extensively the background of the Oath Keepers.
According to Moseley, the committee asked a set of questions to see just what Rhodes would and wouldn’t talk about, but it ended up raising a lot of questions regarding the Oath Keepers, which he was able to answer. Kellye SoRelle, the Oath Keepers’ acting leader after Rhodes was detained last month, also appeared before the Jan. 6 committee.
In its probe, the group heard from over 475 individuals and gathered more than 60,000 pages of records, according to a spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee.
Before he was charged by a federal jury in Washington, Moseley claimed Rhodes volunteered to work with the panel as much as he could. He went on to say that Rhodes talked about his earlier work with the Oath Keepers, and that Rhodes became worked up while speaking about how group members protected a shop in Ferguson, Missouri, during riots that followed Michael Brown’s death in 2014.
Despite Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election, federal prosecutors allege Rhodes is the leader of a criminal conspiracy to keep Trump in power. According to prosecutors, Rhodes informed other accused that there was no typical political or legal route out of this situation and that they should expect the worst.
Prosecutors allege that Rhodes assisted in the formation of “Quick Reaction Forces” — QRFs — that were equipped and positioned in Virginia, just outside the range of Washington’s tough firearms restrictions.
Moseley said he will keep pushing for Rhodes’ pretrial release, despite the fact that the allegations make it a difficult fight. He stated that the most pressing questions raised by the Jan. 6 committee may not be resolved until Rhodes’ criminal processes are completed.
Image via Reuters
