I think I may have let this cat out of the bag to our Locals community supporters some time ago. (My few remaining/functioning memory cells send that faint signal.) But, for the newly initiated . . . some months ago, Attorney Brad Geyer -- representing Oath Keeper Ken Harrelson -- asked me if I would write his opening and closing arguments for him in this trial. I wasn't sure he was serious, but . . . he was.
In addition to the courtroom tweetstorming, the compiling the conpendium each night, then recording and editing a video update, my 'work days' have been from 5:30am (alarm default setting) to about 10:30-11pm . . . before beginning my research and note-taking on the opening and closing statements for Harrelson's case. I've accumulated 10-times the amounf of notes needed -- for both -- andmost of that is just the material I needed to learn in order to write these in a manner which is not only only going to be effective before the jury, but doesn't elicit objections from the prosection and get shut down by the judge. (Both can happen.) I joked with Brad a couple nights ago that I was going to run off to California and "take the bar exam" after this trial. California is the only state you can do that, without and actual 'law degree.' California! Who knew? (I'd actually be more inclined to go the 'Saul Goodman' route, and apply to the University of American Samoa. "Better Call Steve!" Ha!)
This opening argument is not the best thing I've ever written. It's not an article meant to be read. It's bascially a speech, and written with a speaker in mind, not a reader. As I said, I don't consider it even close to the 'best' things I've ever written -- certainly not a literary masterpiece -- but it's singularly the most important thing I've ever written . . . and . . . today's the day. Brad deferred his opening until after the government rested his case. (Three of the defense attorney's did their openings at the trial's begging, and two deferred.) So . . . I'm soon to hear my words spoken in the most important trail taking place in America today. I pray they are effective. And, if you pray . . . pray for Brad Geyer this morning. He's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders right now . . . or at least, the fate of one man's life is in his hands. I saw it in has face this morning. (Oh, and BTW . . . Brad is doing this for Harrelson pro bono . . . and has been living this case 20 hours a day, all by himself, for over a year now.) So, even if you don't pray . . . please make an exception today.
Okay . . . here it is. You're 'hearing' it even before the jury does.
-------
May it please The Court . . .
Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury . . .
My name is Bradford Geyer, and I stand here today for Mr. Kenneth Harrelson.
This is a case of no ordinary magnitude, that addresses an event which shook this entire nation, and no less so, your city — as well as your own lives being in such direct proximity to those events of January 6th, 2021.
What transpired on that horrible day came about because of the wounds of a deeply divided nation. Rather than uniting us — as did the tragedies of 9/11 — those events on January 6 left this country even more grossly divided, with our emotions and feelings about that day inflamed by a polarized political landscape and extremist media sources that see such events through entirely different interpretive lenses.
On the one side, it seems half the nation believes that every person that travelled to your city that day — our nation’s capital — had nothing in their heart but insurrection against our very democracy. Many of even the most reasonable among us watched the unfolding story in horror from their televisions, and were left believing that every person who visited this city that day had contempt in their hearts for our democracy and our Republic.
On the other side, equally reasonable people were also aghast at the violence against United States Capitol Police and DC Metro police, and at the property destruction committed against this country’s most sacred symbol of our democracy — the United States Capitol Building. As you know, because so many believed the stories of a controversial election result, they felt sympathy for the frustrations which ignited those terrible and misdirected actions.
Reasonable people, though — from both sides — know that the extremes are rarely true. Hyperbolic headlines sell papers . . . or in today’s world, generate “clicks,” but 100s-of-thousands of people did peacefully gather on that cold January morning to express their frustrations about what they sincerely had been led to believe might be a manipulated election result.
We know now, that only a small fraction of those 100s-of-thousands actually participated in violence, mayhem, and property destruction. Unfortunately, a few thousand of that larger mass did watch and cheer, but the vast majority of that larger number travelled back home the next day embarrassed at the misrepresentation of their own, and ALL OUR shared values. Perverted before our very eyes by so few of those they thought to be “on the same side.”
One of those most dear of all our shared values — that each side desperately clings to, though — is justice. The American system of justice. And that’s why we are here, today. That’s why you are here for so many weeks. Without the American jury of our peers, there cannot be true justice.
I’m going to soon get around to telling you why Kenny is innocent of the charges the government has made against him, and how we will show the government’s most serious of charges — seditious conspiracy — doesn’t apply to either his intentions, actions, or words leading up to January 6, but also doesn’t come close to representing his behavior and deeds on that terrible day.
But first, I’m reminded of another trial of similar magnitude which took place exactly 252 years ago. Coincidentally, that trial also began in October.
October of 1770. Similarly, the trial was the result of a violent and tragic event that equally shook the people of its town, and likewise . . . it was the result of a deeply divided political schism amongst the people — both in that town, and from afar. So horrific was the alleged crime, it also left the citizens of that town almost universally predisposed to the defendants’ guilt.
But . . . according to the lawyer for the EIGHT defendants in that particular trial . . . John Adams . . . who would later become the second president of The United States of America . . . he famously said in his own statement before those jurors:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
The Boston Massacre created a highly prejudicial environment among the people of Boston, who wanted swift justice . . . but as I said, they were close to near unanimously predisposed to the guilt of those eight enlisted British soldiers and their Captain . . . and they wanted he death penalty for all.
John Adams would later describe his role, as those nine soldiers’ lawyer as “the greatest service I ever rendered my country.” Why? In a town where ALL British soldiers were hated, those soldiers had been afforded a fair trial by jury. This, in a time — and in a young land — where mobs could sway events, but Adams allowed the entire world to see that justice and liberty were valued as the legal rights of all people. Even those who were among the most despised by the very people determining their guilt or innocence. The very genesis of the American jury.
Your predecessors.
Before moving on to the specifics of Kenny’s innocence, please allow me to give you one more quote from John Adams at that trial - eerily reminiscent of the events that occurred on January 6th:
“If a number of persons, being met together at a fair or market, or on any other lawful and innocent occasion, happen on a sudden quarrel . . . they are not guilty of a riot . . . but [only] those who actually engage in it . . . or actually had a previous knowledge of the design thereof.”
Ahhh. The guilty are only those who ENGAGE in the violence and property damage of a riot. Not those who simply . . . and I quote . . . “happen upon a sudden quarrel.”
Or, like in this very case, where Kenny is charged with a conspiracy to that violence, he is not guilty unless he . . . and I quote . . . “actually had a previous knowledge of the design thereof.”
One of the clearest objectives of our judicial process — given to us by this Nation’s Founders — is the idea that the process itself, including those who sit as a jury of the defendant’s peers, is to provide a non-political balance to whatever the political influences might be on a particular trial’s outcome.
We all know that nothing has no more divided this nation, politically, than the circumstances and cast of political characters leading up to January 6th. This is your opportunity to look past those political pressures and biases, and determine the guilt or innocence of a man who himself had no political objectives that day.
A man who had never even voted in a presidential election. Kenny is literally, apolitical. No deeply held positions, either way. Just a man who served his country in the US Army, worked as a welder for SpaceX, then went searching on the internet in hope of finding an honorable organization through which he could continue serving his community, using the skills and training he’d learned in the armed forces.
Like three other of the Government’s own cooperative witnesses — which they presented in this Court over the past four weeks — Kenny found a website to an organization called the Oath Keepers, whose basic statement of faith seemingly aligned with his values of service to community, and might also afford him the opportunity to continue his life in accordance to that oath he’d previously taken to defend our democracy and our Constitution against all its enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Basic love of country and his family — his wife Angel, and their three children — and surprisingly, in Kenny’s case, without the entanglement of any extremist political baggage. Or really, any interest in politics, at all.
In fact, as you have already learned from this trial — like most of the rest of us — who now get most of our news and political discourse from social media . . . Kenny hasn’t had a social media account of any kind since 2014.
No Facebook. No Twitter. No daily diet of political memes or extremist political blog links. Just hard work for his family and his wife who adores him, and who has sacrificed greatly in order to be sitting in his courtroom almost daily. Far away from their home and family down in Florida.
So apolitical . . . and so, NOT anti-government is Kenny, that despite the legal jeopardy he’s faced for over 21 months now — brought against him by the very government of the country he loves — his own son has joined the Army during this time.
Additionally — just like we’ve all learned from those three Government cooperative witnesses — one of the primary reasons Kenny was attracted to the Oath Keepers was their commitment to disaster relief services.
Just like those other three government witnesses — all also from Florida — Kenny had a keen sense of duty for helping those communities hardest hit by the hurricanes that so frequently visit their state.
Ironically, that’s exactly how he and his wife Angel met — when he was at Ft. Polk and Hurricane Gustav destroyed Angel Harrelson’s trailer in Louisiana . . . and Angel moved nearby for work and shelter.
Since then, his own neighbors have grown to love Kenny, because he’s the guy — when a hurricane is coming their way — would go around to his neighbors and tell them to get their families to safety, and he’d stay to make sure their homes were safe and protected from looters.
Hurricane and disaster relief opportunities, as you can now understand, is something near and dear to his heart.
That, and service to his community with other individuals of shared training and experience in protecting life and property was his attraction to the Oath Keepers. Not politics and political rallies. Those were just something else that came along with the territory, and it didn’t matter which political party a particular VIP might be with when he operated in a personal security detail - or, PSD - he wasn’t going to vote for them, either way. Politics is not his thing.
It’s kind of funny — and I hope Kenny will forgive me for telling this story — but when I was first getting to know him, he didn’t know the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he thought the Electoral College was a place where people went to school.
Preventing the certification of an election — or what that even entails — was the last thing to ever cross his mind.
But, more on that, later . . .
As a disabled military veteran — honorably discharged — Kenny too had his own struggles with alcohol. We heard a similar testimony from the Government’s witness, Jason Dolan. Kenny used to drink a lot. A LOT. But he found a way to overcome that excess through hard work, service to his community, and devotion to family.
Kenny also has a pretty good mouth on him . . . just has we’ve heard in this trial from the other retired members of the military who joined the Oath Keepers. The only difference is — and as you’ve heard me point out during cross examinations of many of the government’s witnesses — the one guy who was never engaged in that type of language on all those hundreds of Signal chats, texts, GoToMeeting conference calls, and Zello walkie-talkie app conversations . . . was Kenny Harrelson.
Mainly, because he was almost never on those chats and calls, and in the rare instances when he was on the list, he didn’t participate. The whole politically charged, rah-rah, bravado, braggadocio, 1776, Don’t Tread on Me, Death to Tyrants stuff is simply not his thing.
That said . . . The language of soldiers and cops are harsh, full of bravado. Not something most of us use, and for which many of us are not comfortable hearing. But, that’s who they are. It’s what they do. But . . . they also stand on those walls and dig those foxholes in foreign lands so that we don’t have to.
They run toward the fire, so the rest of us can run away. That language is part of their genetic code, and we forgive them for it, because they do the hard things most of us can’t contemplate doing.
And . . . they speak in a manner most of us would never contemplate. It’s like in football. American football. Think about it:
The quarterback throws a BOMB to the wide receiver, or a BULLET to the tight end.
The defense uses a blitz — which came from the German term, BLITZKRIEG . . . meaning “lightning war.”
To BLOW AWAY the other team means to outscore them in a humiliating fashion, but in war it meant to KILL WITH GUNFIRE.
The term FORMATION was adopted from military lingo for many sports, and refers to how they line up for a play. (No . . . I’m going to spare us all from talking about a STACK formation.)
A BATTLE IN THE TRENCHES describes what happens between the offensive and defensive lines, but in World War I TRENCH WARFARE was horrifying.
The RED ZONE referred to unsecured areas in Baghdad, but in football, it’s the last 20 yards before the end zone, a similarly dangerous area for the defense.
You get the point. Military guys speak differently than the rest of us, and use dangerous sounding terminology and descriptions for their activities, but it’s usually just all talk. And, we’ve heard a lot of that this past four and half weeks.
Well . . . except from one guy . . . Kenny Harrelson.
If you recall, he wasn’t even added to the OK J6 OP Signal chat group until he was finally talked into coming to DC on the evening of January 3rd. Even then . . . we heard nary a peep out of him until January 7th, when Kenny dropped a couple choice F-Bombs because he couldn’t find his gear when packing up to go home and he had started to see press coverage of some of the horrors and embarrassment of what had happened that day.
But, you never once heard from him on any of those political bitching and moaning or planning chats presented by the government . . . from all the way back before the election of 2020 up until, and even on the day of January 6th.
Why? Because, first of all . . . politics is not Kenny’s thing. Second . . . Kenny had no intention of attending the rallies planned for January 6th. As you learned from day after day of the government’s presentation of evidence, Kenny also didn’t attend either of the other DC rallies in November and December. So why would he be on those planning calls?
As I said. Not his thing.
And, because none of THAT was his thing . . . neither was conspiracy. Any kind of conspiracy — seditious, or otherwise. And I will further prove to you that thing John Adams called a “stubborn fact” as this trial proceeds.
As I mentioned . . . Kenny had no intention of coming to DC for the January 6th rallies and other scheduled and related events. That’s why he didn’t participate in those calls. That’s why you never saw him spouting off with any of that hyperbolic, rancorous language. Not that he can’t do it too . . . but he simply wasn’t going . . . and therefore simply didn’t participate in any of the planning . . . and therefore could NOT have been involved in any kind of conspiracy.
Not only is politics not his thing, but he simply wasn’t on-line, and he was not participating when all that other bravado messaging was taking place.
But . . . on the evening of January 3rd . . . Kenny received a phone call from Mr. Meggs, who told Kenny that he was needed to help provide personal security and escorts for certain VIPs, and to also head up the security for the licensed second stage that was to present another roster of political VIP speakers up near the Capitol.
Kenny responded that he couldn’t afford the trip, but he was assured by Mr. Meggs that his expenses for both travel and lodging would be covered if he could clear his way to go and help.
So . . . there you have it. It’s no more complicated than that. On the morning of the 4th, Kenny got in the car with Jason Dolan and Terry Cummings — both of whom the Government has already introduced to you along with their testimonies. BOTH, Government witnesses, who BOTH testified under oath here in this courtroom, that in the four full days those three men were together . . . traveling from Florida to North Carolina on the 4th . . . from North Carolina to Virginia on the 5th . . . during their PSD duties on the evening of the 5th . . . during their PSD duties on the 6th . . . and their drive all the way back to Florida on the 7th . . . NEVER ONCE was there a discussion — as relayed by those two Government witnesses under oath — about armed insurrection, attacking law enforcement officers, invading or occupying the Capitol, attacking Congress Persons, preventing the peaceful transfer of power from President Trump to President-Elect Biden, or illegally taking weapons into the District.
Kenny Harrelson never engaged in any such CONSPIRATORIAL discussions during that entire time.
ALSO . . . facts being a “stubborn thing” . . . as we learned directly from the testimony of FBI Special Agent Kelsey Harris — just this Tuesday — and time and time again, from other government witnesses — Oath Keeper founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, never issued any order to the other defendants in this trial to go into the Capitol, invade the Capitol, attack the Capitol, storm the Capitol, or attack the Congress.
Nor did he issue instructions, orders, or plans to stop the Election confirmation. In fact, there were never any communications, whatsoever, about any level of specific planning that day. We saw on our video monitors ONLY a series of messages for those Oath Keepers “no longer engaged in security details” to meet him on the Supreme Court side, OUTSIDE of the Capitol sometime shortly after 3pm. Then, there were no more directives issued from Rhodes about any other flow-up “mission” . . . other than to join him for dinner at the Olive Garden if they were still in the area.
As every one of the government’s OWN cooperating witnesses also said, no such plans were discussed in or around, or with Kenny . . . so neither was there even a sideline “off mission” conspiracy against the Capitol, or Congress, hatched by renegade Oath Keepers involving Kenny.
Those who went into the Capitol did so with no other intent or pre-planning - just as spontaneously as did those hundreds of other peaceful protestors who have been charged with or pled out to simple misdemeanor trespassing in a restricted space.
Kenny Harrelson didn’t participate in any conspiracy against the government of the United States, and we will further prove this to you in the coming days. It simply did not happen.
Did Kenny bring firearms to the Virginia hotel? Yes, he most certainly did. Why? Because — as you’ve learned from testimony during this trial — a QRF, or Quick Reaction Force, is only a DEFENSIVE, not an OFFENSIVE preparation of the Oath Keepers. It is standard operating procedure at all events in which they provide PSD services. So, this was nothing out of the ordinary for Kenny.
And, as you have learned from every FBI Special Agent who has testified on the government’s behalf, there is no evidence that any Oath Keeper — including Kenny — ever violated DC’s strict gun laws by bringing their personal firearms into the District. This is why when Kenny’s home was searched by FBI, they left the guns behind . . . because they were and are perfectly legal.
Further, we will show you, conclusively and irrefutably, that Kenny had no knowledge of, and made no preparations for the violence, mayhem, or property destruction that transpired on January 6th.
We will show you — by way of those “stubborn facts” that there’s no way Kenny participated in whatever conspiracy the government has alleged.
One last significant point, before I close . . .
While I’m confident you have heeded The Court’s instructions about not following the media’s characterizations of the Oath Keepers during this trial, it was impossible not to hear it during the year and half leading up to this trial.
We all did. It was inescapable. Phrases such as . . . “extremist right wing group” . . . “Radical white nationalist militia” . . . and other such false characterizations.
Worse yet, the very government of the United States has implied that the Oath Keepers actually LED THE INSURRECTION, and explicitly said the Oath Keepers committed violence that day.
During one of the House Elect Committee Hearings on January 6th, Representative ZOE LOFGREN said:
“In addition to his connection to President Trump, Roger Stone maintained extensive direct connections to two groups responsible for VIOLENTLY ATTACKING THE CAPITOL, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.”
Except . . . in all the video evidence presented in the last four weeks of this trial, we haven’t seen one episode of Kenny Harrelson violently attacking the Capitol, or attacking anyone else.
It was impossible not to hear those kinds of false accusations repeated over and over again in the media and by many of our elected leaders over the last 20-plus months leading up to this trial and your selection to this sacred American jury. It has become such an ingrained narrative in so many people’s minds, but . . . Allow me to remind you one more time of those words spoken by John Adams in in his defense of those eight British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
***[Insertion of video and photo exhibits]***
During Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nestler’s opening statement, he said these words:
“On January 6th of 2021 at around 2:35 p.m., the crowd on the east side steps of the United States Capitol parted as a group of 14 people, dressed similarly in military style combat gear, moving similarly in military style formation with their hands on the person in front, marched up the stairs towards the doors of the Capitol . . . As they approached, the crowd cheered for them, yelling, "Oath Keepers, Oath Keepers." They were the LEADERS.”
LEADERS? Leaders of what?
The west side of the Capitol building had already been breached more than 20 minutes earlier — by Nestler’s own presentation of that day’s timeline.
Hundreds of people — with whom the government has not even made an attempt to connect to the Oath Keepers — were already pouring into the Capitol Building from the other side. Not a single one an Oath Keeper. Not a single one shown to be connected to the Oath Keepers, in any way.
And, in fact, it was THEY . . . those who breached the west side . . . who also FORCED OPENED the EAST SIDE doors. NOT the Oath Keepers.
Certainly not Kenny Harrelson.
We will show you that thousands of others preceded Kenny and other Oath Keepers to the Capitol, hundreds of those breaching bike rack and snow fence barricades before the Oath Keepers ever arrived at the Capitol grounds. Those other people were the LEADERS.
Those wrongful, violent and illegal deeds were perpetrated by others who the government hasn’t made the slightest attempt to connect to the Oath Keepers in any way. If there’s a conspiracy . . . it must be with THOSE who breached those barricades and busted the west side windows and doors . . . before Kenny arrived.
If there’s a conspiracy to violently attack the Capitol — as alleged by the House Select Committee — where is the evidence of a connection to the Oath Keepers by those who were attacking police officers at the east Columbus doors — with blunt force objects and chemical spray — while Kenny was down the stairs singing the National Anthem completely unaware of the mayhem taking place at those doors?
STUBBORN FACT ALERT:
When the west terrace battle line was fully raging — beginning at approximately 1pm — no Oath Keepers were present, and Kenny Harrelson was at that very moment escorting a group of VIPs who were to speak at one of the 6 licensed and permitted events scheduled on the Capitol grounds that afternoon. Completely unaware that barricades had been breached and law enforcement officers were being attacked.
(Those personal security details the government does not want you to know about.)
If they were the LEADERS — as Mr. Nestler asserts — why did the government never make a connection of the Oath Keepers and Kenny Harrelson, to those who were actually doing that violence, destruction of property, and opening those doors?
Why? . . . because if there ever was a conspiracy that day . . . it wasn’t WITH or BY the Oath Keepers and Kenny Harrelson, and we will show you those stubborn facts.
That crowd on the steps chanted “Oath Keepers. Oath Keepers” — not because they were their leaders — but because in their 13-year history, the Oath Keepers had never caused a disturbance at any event at which they’d provided personal security services, protected private property, worked alongside local law enforcement to help keep the peace . . . in areas where riots had broken out . . . or provided disaster relief services.
They’d never broken a law when working any event in those 13 years. No arrests. No charges for criminal behavior. No illegal use of firearms.
And they didn’t lead a conspiracy to overthrow our democracy on January 6th, 2021.
In closing . . .
John Adams also intoned Lord Chief Justice Hale, in his defense of those British soldiers back in 1770. Hale said:
“It is better five guilty persons escape, than one innocent person suffer.”
Adams went on:
“Lord Chancellor Fortiscue, you see, carries the matter farther, and says, Indeed one had rather . . . MUCH RATHER . . . that twenty guilty persons should escape, than one innocent person suffer.”
That legal principle actually began in ancient Rome . . . persists in the Rome of today . . . was adopted by English Common Law . . . and is a bedrock of American justice today.
It is the very reason why we say a man cannot be punished for a crime unless he is found guilty “BEYOND reasonable doubt.”
Not just ‘reasonable doubt’ . . . but BEYOND doubt.
We will prove to you . . . BEYOND reasonable doubt . . . that Kenny Harrelson is innocent of the charges brought against him.
Thank you all for your sacrifice in performing this most honorable duty.
Thank you, Your Honor.
