Comment U.S. prosecutors filed new charges Friday against the leader of the Oath Keepers and alleged members of a riotous conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying a plotter came to Washington with explosives and detailing allegations that a plus. -The defendant maintained a “death list” under the name of a Georgia election official. The charges came days before the next House committee hearing on Tuesday, January 6, which is expected to investigate links between extremist groups accused of playing a key role in the violence on Capitol Hill and former President Donald Trump’s bid to oust 2020 election through false allegations of voter fraud. In a 28-page filing, prosecutors said a Jan. 19, 2021, law enforcement search of the home of accused co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va., discovered a document containing the words ” DEATH LIST” handwritten at the top with the name of a Georgia election official and an alleged family member The official. Both were the targets of unfounded accusations that they engaged in voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors said. “That Caldwell created and maintained a “kill list” of officials involved in the presidential election process—concurrently with his preparation to travel to Washington, D.C.—illustrates his actions during the alleged conspiracy and his intent to violently oppose the transfer of power. Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy A. Edwards Jr. of Washington wrote, referring to the tumultuous conspiracy charge against Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes and eight others, including Caldwell. On Friday night, Caldwell’s attorney, David Fisher, released a statement from his client that denied the allegation, which prosecutors first raised in arguing for Caldwell’s pretrial release in February 2021. A judge has since granted Caldwell parole. “The claim by the Department of Justice that I intended to kill election officials is an absolute, 100% disgusting lie. “Unfortunately, the Department of Justice withheld from the public the evidence exonerating me while hiding behind protective orders,” the statement read. Separately, Edwards said the government has evidence that group members from Florida and Arizona allegedly staged semiautomatic rifles and other weapons at a suburban Washington hotel, while a third group from North Carolina kept their firearms “ready to go” to a vehicle in the parking lot. lot. The prosecutor alleged that another Rhodes co-defendant, alleged Florida “state boss” Kelly Meggs, had told a co-defendant who pleaded guilty in a cooperation agreement with the government that another group member from the Florida, Jeremy Brown, came to Washington with explosives in his recreational vehicle, which he left parked in College Park, Md. Brown, who pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges on Jan. 6, is not charged in the indictment with conspiracy but was described by prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” The government last September reportedly confiscated weapons from Brown, including two illegal short-barreled firearms from his Tampa home and military-grade grenades from “the same RV that Brown was traveling in in Washington, D.C. on January 6,” the prosecutor argued. Defense counsel for Brown — a retired Special Forces soldier and onetime congressional candidate who is defending himself but is in custody pending trial on separate federal gun charges in Florida — did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The latest U.S. allegations were contained in a court filing required because prosecutors seek to introduce exculpatory evidence at the Oath Keepers’ scheduled Sept. 26 trial that is not directly related to their alleged offenses. Federal criminal rules typically prohibit such extraneous material, but make an exception for relevant information that purports to show a motive, the intent of a larger charged conspiracy, or is otherwise “intrinsic” to a case. How Trump’s flirtation with an anti-sedition law inspired the January 6 riot Prosecutors said the defendants face charges including conspiracy to corruptly obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results by Congress and opposing violence at the inauguration of President Biden. The charging documents allege the team coordinated travel, equipment and firearms and weapons out of Washington, D.C., ready “to answer Rhodes’ call to raise arms in Rhodes’ direction.” “Caldwell’s trips to Washington, DC, on January 6, as evidenced by his statements, were informed by the belief that the election was rigged and that the legal transfer of presidential power must be thwarted by force. His writings targeting poll workers are directly related to this point,” Edwards said. Edwards added, “Brown’s statements, firearms, and explosives are intrinsic to the conspirators’ offense as contemporaneous, direct evidence of the manner and means used by the conspirators to further the objects of the charged conspiracy.” In the plea documents, three Oath Keepers defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiracy riots admitted they were among a group who forced entry through the doors of the Rotunda after marching single file in a stack up the steps wearing camouflage vests, helmets, goggles and Oath Keepers Badges. They recognized that some had brought rifles to Washington, which had been hidden in advance in a Ballston hotel and one in Vienna. Rhodes, Caldwell and the other co-defendants pleaded not guilty. Rhodes said in an interview with the Washington Post in March 2021 that there was no plan to breach the Capitol. He said the group organized firearms in Northern Virginia in case it was needed as a “quick reaction force” if Trump invoked the Sedition Act and mobilized armed groups to stay in power. Rhodes’ attorney declined to comment Friday night on the government’s latest allegations. The attack on Capitol Hill followed a rally outside the White House in which Trump urged his supporters to march on Congress. Rioters injured several police officers and ransacked Capitol offices, disrupting proceedings as lawmakers left the House floor. Separately, a lawyer for Rhodes said he contacted the Jan. 6 House committee earlier Friday offering to testify before it on the condition that he be allowed to appear live, in person and unedited, not from the prison where he is being held . Rhodes is “not interested in any games,” attorney Lee Bright said, and will speak about his group’s activities in the last election and on Jan. 6, waiving his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Bright said the committee appears to be looking at Rhode’s circumstances, recognizing, as a practical matter, that such an appearance would likely be a court order by a judge, prosecution by prosecutors in his criminal case and a transfer by the US Marshals Service.
