WASHINGTON, D.C. – The trial of two Central Florida members of the Oath Keepers completed its second week with prosecutors attempting to show that they conspired to engage in violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Kelly Meggs, of Dunnellon, and Kenneth Harrelson, of Titusville, are charged with seditious conspiracy with other members of the Oath Keepers, including its leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes.
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According to sources at CBS News, Special Agent Kelsey Harris, who investigated the Florida contingent of the far-right group, testified this week about the intense rhetoric and planning that preceded the Jan. 6 attack.
Prosecutors alleged Meggs wrote in a group chat on Dec. 22, 2020, “It’s gonna be wild…It’s gonna be wild….He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild…Sir Yes Sir!!”
They contended it was in response to former President Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, describing his Jan. 6 rally as “wild.”
Defense attorneys argued that no evidence has been presented so far that show those on trial advocated for storming the Capitol.
“I am going to be very worried every time I look at that case and watch it, because of the potential for mistrial,” said Mark O’Mara.
The criminal defense attorney said he has declined requests to defend other suspects in the Capitol riot case.
He told News 6 he believes there should be a camera inside the federal courtroom during this trial.
“We have an open judicial system, and the more that we can expose the general public to it, the better they’ll know what’s going on,” he said. “Granted, there are warts, and they’ll see them, but the idea of protecting this somehow from one camera, or one pool camera in a courtroom, that lets the rest of us see what’s going on, to me, is something out of the 1930s or ‘40s. This is 2022. It is time for the rest of us to be able to see it on the internet, just like we see everything else.”
The trial enters its third week on Monday.
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