Day 13 of Oath Keepers Trial
***Before I begin . . . remember, this tweetstorm is unedited, and posted as fast as I could get the highlights out, but a very interesting message was revealed in the "OK FL" Signal chat group, which the government conveniently left out of their direct questioning yesterday of witness, FBI Special Agent Drew -- yet she was forced to read it aloud during cross-examination this morning:
“We need to stick to the objective, and protect those in the building from violence . . . including members and staff.” -Unnamed Oath Keeper, from Signal chats recovered by FBI, after violence had broken out on January 6
We'll see if any MSM outlets incude that in their stories. Now, to the tweetstorm . . .
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Steve Bannon also in Courthouse today. (Sentencing)
Mehta begins at 9:02am, with a request of the legal teams to give him some “sense” of how much longer this trip will take, so that he can so inform the jurors. (Not now, but soon.)
Jury seated at 9:04 . . . Agent Drew retakes the stand . . . Bright - for Rhodes - begins cross examination.
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Bright asks if the Agent has actually interviewed any of THESE defendants. At first she says, “no, then corrects herself, and indicates she HAS met with on of the defendants . . . Mehta immediately interrupts, and calls a sidebar . . . “We need to talk about that.” . . . (Hmmmm.)
Back from sidebar . . . Bright is forced to abandon that question. (Why?) He rephrases, “You don’t really know the individual mindset of each of these defendants.”
Bright gets Agent to admit that she DID NOT put together that media presentation by the government yesterday. She dd not individually select the messages, videos, or content of the presentation. Only validated those items the government selected.
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Agent says she’s not aware of Michael Greene’s other operational duties on the day of January 6th . . . as related to the security details he was overseeing as OK “operational leader.” (What kind of investigator is she, actually?)
Bright reads her a chat message from an individual which she cannot identify . . . but which she validated yesterday. “Patriots in Capitol” at 2:07pm . . . precedes the OKs entry into the Capitol by at 30 minutes. Bright already has her rattled, because the implication yesterday was that the message referred to OKs.
Message from Greene, “We need to regroup any members who are not on mission” (2:15pm) A message to entire group. Bright begins to get her to admit - without context - she can’t confer what this message was referring to . . . . . . Bright once again force to rephrase. “The intent of this could be open to interpretation?” She evades.
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Bright is having Agent Drew review several of the text and Signal messages they displayed yesterday . . . but gets her to admit that many of those messages were DELAYED in delivery by as much as 5 and a half hours because of the bandwidth overload on J6. She admits that many of those messages presented by government yesterday were not delivered to intended recipient until long after they had left the Capitol. She admits from data supplied by phone carriers that those messages were not received until hours later.
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Bright brings up that in a previous testimony - under oath - she’d referred to Kellye Sorrell as Rhodes “lawyer”, but yesterday called her “his girlfriend.” She said “I don’t recall” - several times. Bright points out he has the transcript from that previous trial, and she says, “Okay, whatever that says.”
Bright is showing her additional messages sent in which Rhodes and Greene are trying to get all the OKs to regroup - in a very confusing situation - “near the trailers” . . . “south side of the capitol . . . just left of dome.” In fact, Rhodes was never on that side of the Capitol, by her own investigation . . . so he was confused at where he was located, giving bad directions. As well as other bad directions, giving conflicting directions that don’t comport with the landmarks Rhodes mentioned. Agent agrees Rhodes has no idea where he is when sending messages to other OKs. Over and over he get the Agent to agree these “out-of-towners” have no idea how to give accurate directions to each other around the Capitol.
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Bright: “Are you familiar with the concept of a QRF?”
Agent: “Yes.” - (Then she defines. She agrees it is a “reaction” force, not an offensive force.)
Bright: “Have you seen a single chat of any kind that indicates the QRF was ever called in.”
Agent: “Based on my knowledge, they did remain in VA.”
Message from Vallejo: “Have two trucks available. Let me know how I can assist.”
Agent: “I don’t recall a direct response” [to that message]
Bright: “No body responded to him at all?”
Agent: “Correct, to my recollection.”
Message from Vallejo : “QRF standing by at hotel. Just say the word…”
Bright: “Does he get a return response?”
Agent: “Not as far as I know.”
Bright: “The biggest event at the Capitol since attack in War of 1812, and no one responds to bring the weapons over?”
Agent: “Correct.”
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Bright shows that they presented Zello chats yesterday which had nothing to do with the defendants in this room, and for which there was no evidence that Rhodes was on, at all. By her investigation . . . she agrees.
Bright: “At no point is there a message, email, or chat containing a direct order for the OKs to enter the Capitol?”
Agent: “That’s correct.”
Bright: “No such order from Mr. Rhodes?”
Agent: “I did not see an order from Mr. Rhodes.”
Bright: “Did Rhodes enter the capitol? . . . have a bull horn? . . . did he give any orders? . . . did he tear down any barriers?”
Agent: “Not to my knowledge.”
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Bright is getting her to acknowledge that the initial breaches of barriers occurred long before Rhodes was even on Capitol Hill.
Bright: “Are you aware that there were multiple permitted events scheduled that day?”
Agent: “yes”
Bright: “Are you aware that Rhodes was an invited speaker at one of those events that day?”
Agent: (She really tried to evade, but eventually acknowledged) “Yes.)
Bright is done . . . Woodward - for Meggs - begins cross . . .
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Woodard gets Agent Drew to read chat messages from OK leaders specifically telling them not to bring anything that can be deemed lethal to the Capitol.
Woodward has her read further messages regarding bringing med kits and chats about the specifics regarding OK security details that morning.
Agent: “Based on their message content I have no reason to doubt that they provided security details on the morning of January 6.”
Woodward then takes Agent through dozens of messages which were NOT presented by the government yesterday, specifically dealing with the scheduling, organization, and “ALL DAY” security planning at the various events legally permitted throughout the day of Jan 6. (Which was the OKs reason for being there.)
***NOTE: Bright previously got the Agent to admit that many of these messages were never delivered because of cell traffic overload, and as a result, comms and coordination broke down. NOT TO MENTION . . . once the OKs arrived at the Capitol, ALL HELL was already breaking loose, due to no action or fault of their own. As a result, the scheduled events for which they were providing security, and walking from The Ellipse to the Capitol for, were already disrupted because of the chaos and violence created by OTHERS. To the extent the OKs “trespassed” or “paraded” on Capitol grounds . . . the one thing that is most apparent, is there was no “conspiracy” to insurrection.***
Mehta calls morning break at 10:25 . . .
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Mehta back at 10:46am . . . asks about previous question on trial length. AUSA Nestler says they should be complete with government’s case by the end of next week. Defense all offer varying lengths for their individual clients: 1 to 3 days, each. Plus government rebuttal . . . closing arguments . . . Mehta estimates this trial could go through week of Nov. 7th or 14th.
Jury re-seated at 10:51am . . . Woodward resumes cross of Agent Drew.
Woodward shows a message slide presented by government that misrepresents who sent the messages from Meggs, when it was actually from Rhodes.
Message they left out: “We need to stick to the objective, and protect those in the building from violence . . . including members and staff.”
“I think the police are gong to be overwhelm . . . too many people . . . “
“This is f-cking ANTIFA . . . none of our OKs were allowed to carry backpacks . . . they’re using lumber . . . this is a f-cking set-up”
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Agent testifies she does not know “Jim Donaldson” . . . yet she read some very inflammatory messages by Donaldson, yesterday . . . but failed to read the message where he sends his regrets, because he was AT HOME, sitting in a doctors office! . . . (Oops) . . . when sending those chat messages. He wasn’t even in DC.
Woodward now presents call detail records that she created and went through yesterday . . . Agent is suddenly going back into “I don’t recall” mode, once she is confronted with answering details about how she compiled this record of phone calls from mobile carriers.
Woodward shows her the long and confusing summary given to FBI of the phone data. He is having her verify the time zones clarification used by carriers. UTC time (standardized) vs. using US time zones, is provided by phone carriers so everyone can see same time on calls across time zones.
Agent testified yesterday the records she presented were “true and accurate.” Woodward is taking her through calls between Meggs and Watkins she presented yesterday, misrepresented the actual times of the calls by FIVE hours, making the context of those calls immaterial to what was happening at the Capitol on the 6th.
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Woodward now brings forward Dolan’s cellphone video after the barrier breach on the east side of Capitol. Large crowd is moving toward Capitol, but Dolan is not moving toward Capitol. Audio:
Dolan: “I think we should go”
Harrelson: “Huh?”
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Woodward now replaying government-presented video from yesterday which represented Meggs holding up his fist to wave other OKs forward as crowd was surging into Capitol. Then he plays longer source video from which the government’s short clips were derived. Showing several other people fist pumping hands in air to the chant of “We want Trump.” This contradicts government’s assertion that Meggs was using his fist to direct OKs toward the door, which they selectively and highly edited, leaving out all the other people pumping their fists into the air.
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Woodward gets Agent to agree that Meggs was only in the Capitol for about 20 minutes. Begins showing CCTV video from Rotunda camera. He then presents a photo Agent presented yesterday, of “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi” sign she took months after J6. He then asks if she knew that sign had been damaged and removed duing the riot of J6? “Yes.” He then enters into evidence a new video, showing same area during riot, after sign had been removed.
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He has Agent read transcript of testimony about the destruction of that sign, and the shards being handed out . . . including reference to someone videoing the scene.
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***Side Note: I was the one who actually captured video of that sign at the moment it was being damaged and broken into small pieces, and handed out among protestors as souvenirs.***
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Woodward now shows the government’s presentation of OKs coming up on USCP officer Harry Dunn, (including Stephen Horn’s video),
Woodward: “Did you interview officer Dunn as part of your investigation?”
Woodward: “Do you understand that they tried to protect officer Dunn?
Mehta the tells Woodward to move on past the Dunn sequence of events. (WTF?!)
***F-CKING GOVERNMENT IS COVERING UP THIS EVENT!!!! This is THE issue behind Moseley’s threat to release the FBI 302, and for which Mehta called that “sealed session” last week. They know how damaging this sequence is to the government’s.***
Woodward moves on to showing more video of Meggs’ non-violent, peaceful interactions and behavior while inside the Capitol. Long sequences, including gestures for people to leave (Agent: “He appears to make that gesture.”) Peaceful interactions with police officers. Then shows his exit thru east doors. Now showing photos after Meggs exited building.
No further questions . . . Geyer - for Harrelson - takes over cross
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Geyer: “You’re aware my client had no FB, Twitter, or other social media of any kind since 2014?”
Agent: “Yes”
Geyer: “He’s not on DC OP chat til Jan 3?”
Agent: “Yes”
Geyer: “Harrelson is not on any of the call lists you presented yesterday, correct?”
Agent: “Yes”
Geyer: “My client only met Jason Dolan on Jan4, and they traveled together to do security on 5th and 6th?”
Agent: I’m aware they travelled together.
Geyer pulls up government presentation of Zello account assigned to Hrreslon, and begins trying to show her that all the users and interactions on that account are Harrelson’s sons, family, and gamers his kids interact with. Not Ken’s interactions. And that the account is actually in Ken’s wife’s name. (‘Cajun Queen”). The Agent would not acknowledge that she had any knowledge of who the people were in the data SHE claims to have investigated. But, did acknowledge that Harrelson was not on Zello during 6th.
Geyer then shows the screen shot from HArrelson’s iPhone which notifications shows backlog of unopened messages during the day of J6. Agent agrees it’s a significant number of unopened messages.
Geyer shows government video of Dolan and Harrelson which began after they arrived on Capitol lawn. He asks if she will agree they are doing security detail prior? She would only acknowledge she’d seen video as they were walking toward Capitol with a group of people who were not OKs.
Mehta asks Geyer how much longer his presentation today will go (11:59) . . . then he announces end of session for today.
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Mehta then tells jury that evidence presentation for this trial could go into the week of Nov. 7th, then send them home for the weekend. Dismisses Agent Drew.
Nestler asks to meet with Agent Drew through weekend to prepare her for next round of direct testimony, despite the fact she is currently under orders not to discuss her current testimony with anyone. Crisp objects. Mehta agrees to allow Nestler to “send her the presentations” for review.
Court dismissed at 12:05pm.
See ya on Monday!
