Oath Keeper Boss Has Messy First Visit to the Witness Stand

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, took the stand in his own defense on Friday in the most significant trial yet over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Suffice it to say he did not back down from spreading deranged conspiracies about the 2020 election that helped fuel deadly violence—though he appeared to stumble along the way.

“I’m good to go,” Rhodes said in D.C. federal court, before launching into his personal history and his decision to start the far-right militia group.

His decision to testify comes after prosecutors spent weeks arguing that Rhodes and his fellow Oath Keepers spent months planning “an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy” in a vain attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Rhodes and four other members have pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy, a rare, Civil War-era charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. On Friday, Rhodes confirmed that he was unhappy with the election and believed that it was “unconstitutional.”