The BulleTin • Thursday, OcTOBer 13, 2022 A13
Jan. 6 insurrection
Oath Keepers jury hears about weapons cache
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST
associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
member of the Oath Keepers
who traveled to Washington
before the Jan. 6 attack on the
U.S. Capitol testified Wednes-
day about a massive cache of
weapons the far-right extrem-
ist group stashed in a Virginia
hotel room.
Taking the stand in the se-
ditious conspiracy case against
Oath Keepers founder Stewart
Rhodes and four associates,
Terry Cummings showed ju-
rors an AR-15 firearm and an
orange box for ammunition
that he contributed to the so-
called quick reaction force the
Oath Keepers had staged at
the hotel outside of Washing-
ton in case they needed weap-
ons.
“I had not seen that many
weapons in one location since
I was in the military,” said
Cummings, a veteran who
joined the Oath Keepers in
Florida in 2020.
Prosecutors have said teams
of Oath Keepers guarded the
arsenal of firearms and were
prepared to rush them into
the hands of extremists in the
capital if needed.
The alleged teams and
the cache of weapons are a
central piece of the Depart-
ment of Justice’s case against
Rhodes and four associates
charged with seditious con-
spiracy in the Jan. 6 attack.
Members of the Oath Keepers
stashed the firearms just out-
side Washington district lim-
its, given the capitol’s tougher
gun laws.
Authorities have alleged
the teams and the stockpile
of arms were designed to get
weapons into Oath Keep-
ers’ hands quickly if they
were needed to support a
plot to stop the transfer of
power from Republican Don-
ald Trump to Democrat Joe
Biden.
Cummings’ testimony came
in the second week of the
trial that is expected to last
several weeks. The others on
trial are Thomas Caldwell of
Berryville, Virginia; Kenneth
Harrelson of Titusville, Flor-
ida; Jessica Watkins of Wood-
stock, Ohio; and Kelly Meggs
of Dunnellon, Florida.
Defense lawyers have not
denied the existence of the
quick reaction teams but
noted that they were never
deployed on Jan. 6. They have
accused prosecutors of falsely
Manuel Balce ceneta/aP file
Members of the Oath Keepers stand on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. A member of the Oath Keepers who
traveled to Washington before the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol testified Wednesday during the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keep-
ers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates about a massive cache of weapons the far-right extremist group stashed in a Virginia hotel
room.
portraying them as an inva-
sion force.
Defense lawyers have said
the Oath Keepers often set
up quick reaction forces for
events, but insist they were de-
fensive forces only to be used
to protect against violence
from antifa activists or in the
event Trump invoked the In-
surrection Act. They are not
facing any gun charges for
bringing the weapons to Vir-
ginia.
Rhodes’ lawyers have said
they will argue that the jury
cannot find him guilty of se-
ditious conspiracy because
all the actions he took before
Jan. 6 were in preparation for
orders he anticipated from
Trump under the Insurrection
Act, which gives presidents
wide discretion to decide
when military force is neces-
sary.
Cummings told jurors that
he traveled to Washington on
Jan. 6 with other Oath Keep-
ers to be part of a VIP secu-
rity detail for Trump’s rally at
the Ellipse. He said he saw it
as an opportunity to “express
my First Amendment rights”
and see a sitting president
susan Walsh/aP file
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washing-
ton on June 25, 2017.
speak, which he had never
done.
Cummings said his under-
standing was the quick reac-
tion forces “would potentially
be used not as an offensive
situation, but more as a show
of force.”
Cummings said he was part
of a group that acted as a secu-
rity team for a VIP at Trump’s
rally before the riot. Cum-
mings and other Oath Keepers
left before Trump’s speech was
finished and went toward the
Capitol.
He recalled Meggs talked
about entering the Capitol
— something Cummings
didn’t think was a good idea.
He then split off to find a
bathroom, and when he re-
turned the group was gone.
The group entered the Capi-
tol while he was away, he said.
Up to an hour later, Cum-
mings rejoined fellow Oath
Keepers from Florida, and
eventually Rhodes appeared
as well.
Cummings said he did not
hear any talk about plans to
storm or attack the Capitol,
though he also said he wasn’t
in a position of leadership.
He has not faced criminal
charges, was subpoenaed to
testify for the government and
acknowledged on the stand
that he has contributed to the
legal defense fund of some of
the defendants.
Authorities have said that
Meggs and the Florida Oath
Keepers on Jan. 5 brought
gun boxes, rifle cases and
suitcases filled with ammuni-
tion to the Virginia hotel that
served as the home for the
quick reaction force. Another
team from Arizona brought
weapons, ammunition, and
supplies to last 30 days, ac-
cording to court papers. A
team from North Carolina
had rifles in a vehicle parked
in the hotel lot, prosecutors
have said.
Prosecutors have described
surveillance footage that they
say shows Oath Keepers roll-
ing bags, large bins and what
appears to be at least one rifle
case into the hotel.
Over several days in
early January, Rhodes spent
$15,500 on guns, including
an AR-platform rifle, mag-
azines, mounts, sights and
other equipment, prosecutors
have said. Caldwell, in one
message, suggested getting a
boat to ferry “heavy weapons”
across the Potomac River into
the Oath Keepers’ “waiting
arms.”
A former Oath Keeper
from North Carolina last
week described setting up
a quick reaction force for
the “Million MAGA March”
in Washington on Nov. 14,
2020, in case Trump invoked
the Insurrection Act. Thou-
sands of Trump supporters
that day gathered at Freedom
Plaza along Pennsylvania Av-
enue in Washington to rally
behind Trump’s false election
claims.
The former Oath Keeper,
John Zimmerman, told jurors
that the Oath Keepers stashed
at least a dozen rifles and
several handguns in his van
parked at Arlington National
Cemetery to serve as the
quick reaction force on that
occasion. He said they never
took the guns into Washing-
ton.
Jan. 6 committee to present evidence Trump was warned of violence
The newly obtained Secret
Service records are just part of
a larger hearing in which the
committee hopes to summarize
and remind the American
public of all the ways Trump is
said to have played a central
role in fomenting a violent
insurrection at the Capitol, one
of the most brutal attacks on
democracy in U.S. history …
BY CAROL D. LEONNIG AND
JACQUELINE ALEMANY
The Washington Post
The likely final public hearing of
the House committee investigat-
ing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the
U.S. Capitol is expected to highlight
newly obtained Secret Service re-
cords showing how President Don-
ald Trump was repeatedly alerted to
brewing violence that day, and he still
sought to stoke the conflict, accord-
ing to three people briefed on the
records.
During Thursday’s hearing, the
committee plans to share new video
footage and internal Secret Service
emails that appear to corroborate
parts of the most startling inside ac-
counts of that day, said the people
briefed, who, like others who spoke
to The Washington Post, spoke on
the condition of anonymity to dis-
cuss sensitive records and conver-
sations. Former White House aide
Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June
that Trump was briefed on Jan. 6 that
some of his supporters were armed
for battle, demanded they be allowed
into his rally and insisted he wanted
to lead them on their march to the
Capitol.
Surveillance footage the commit-
tee plans to share was taken near the
Ellipse that morning before Trump’s
speech and shows throngs of his
supporters clustered just outside the
corralled area for his “Stop the Steal”
rally. Secret Service officers screened
those entering who sought to get
closer to the stage. Law enforcement
officials who were monitoring video
that morning spotted Trump sup-
porters with plastic shields, bullet-
proof vests and other paramilitary
gear, and some in the Secret Service
concluded they stayed outside the
rally area to avoid having their weap-
Jabin Botsford/Washington Post
President Donald Trump is seen on the screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol
holds a primetime hearing on Capitol Hill on July 21 Washington, D.C.
ons confiscated, according to people
familiar with the new records.
Other internal emails likely to be
revealed at the hearing further but-
tress accounts about staff members
warning Trump about the risk and
then the reality of violence that day,
as he continued to press nervous Se-
cret Service agents to take him to the
Capitol to join his supporters march-
ing there, the three people said. After
being alerted to violence erupting at
the Capitol when he returned to the
White House, Trump tweeted crit-
icism of Vice President Mike Pence
for not blocking the certification of
the election, whipping up supporters
who had already trampled over se-
curity barricades and were battling
police to break into the halls of Con-
gress.
The newly obtained Secret Service
records are just part of a larger hear-
ing in which the committee hopes to
summarize and remind the Ameri-
can public of all the ways Trump is
said to have played a central role in
fomenting a violent insurrection at
the Capitol, one of the most brutal
attacks on democracy in U.S. his-
tory, according to multiple people
briefed on the evidence and commit-
tee plan. While the committee’s pre-
vious hearings took center stage over
several weeks this summer, the com-
mittee is trying to revive interest in
its probe and deliver what it has pri-
vately called its “closing arguments”
about past and ongoing threats to
democracy as voters prepare to cast
ballots in next month’s midterm
elections.
The hearing aims to highlight new
evidence gathered by investigators
that corroborates the committee’s key
findings about Trump and the Jan. 6
insurrection, according to the people
briefed: that he sought to rile up his
supporters to help block the certifi-
cation of Joe Biden’s electoral victory;
used his bully pulpit to encourage a
fiery showdown at the Capitol; and
then refused to budge to help rescue
thousands of lawmakers, staff mem-
bers and police officers on Capitol
Hill who were either fleeing or fight-
ing for their lives that afternoon.
It’s unclear, however, if the new
material will shed any light on a par-
ticularly dramatic part of Hutchin-
son’s testimony, in which she re-
counted a senior Secret Service
official telling her that Trump had
erupted in anger and lunged at the
lead security agent in his motorcade
when told he could not go to the
Capitol.
One email the committee has ob-
tained highlights the level of alarm
inside Secret Service headquarters
on Jan. 6 about the possibility that
Trump would get his wish to head
to the Capitol — and join a melee in
progress.