In a tense, face-to-face exchange with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, prosecutors used Rhodes’ words from texts, speeches and interviews to suggest to the jury that the militia leader misled them when he testified that he did not know other members activities on January 6, 2021, and was horrified by the violence that day.   

  Rhodes is the first of five defendants charged with riot conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, to testify.   

  In his two days of testimony, Rhodes told jurors that he was not involved in the details of the Jan. 6 planning and that he was not aware of the plans for the so-called rapid reaction force that the team created in Virginia.  was quickly transporting weapons to Washington, prosecutors alleged.   

  Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy, however, showed jurors Signal messages in which Rhodes told other members that “We’re going to have a QRF” on Jan. 6 because “this situation calls for it” and were part of group messages where members shared photos of his routes QRF could be used to enter the city.   

  “The buck stops with you on this business,” Rakocchi told Rhodes, reading aloud the chief’s messages.   

  “Am I responsible for everything everyone else did?”  Rhodes replied.   

  “You’re in charge, right?”  Rakocci said.   

  “Not if they’re doing something out of commission,” he replied.   

  “It’s convenient,” Rakocci said, smiling.   

  The militia leader also told prosecutors he “hoped to avoid” conflict and was only worried about a civil war breaking out after Joe Biden became president — leading to a dismissive question from Rakoczy about what “the civil war will be like ». [January] 21st and not the sixth?”   

  “I do not condone the violence that occurred” on Jan. 6, Rhodes testified.  “Whoever assaulted a police officer that day should be prosecuted for that.”   

  Rakoczy pointed to statements Rhodes made in a secretly recorded conversation in the days after Jan. 6, where he said he wished Oath Keepers had brought rifles to the Capitol that day.   

  “If he’s not going to do the right thing and just let himself get away illegally, then we should have brought rifles,” Rhodes said in the recording, which prosecutors played again for jurors.   

  “We could have fixed it right then and there,” Rhodes said of the Capitol attack, according to the recording.  “I’d hang King Pelosi from the lamp post.”   

  After playing the recording, Rakoczy asked Rhodes, “That’s what you said four days after the Capitol attack, right?”   

  “Yeah, after a few drinks and I was pissed,” Rhodes testified.   

  Rhodes and the other four defendants pleaded not guilty to the sedition conspiracy charges.