WASHINGTON (AP) — A participant of the Oath Keepers that took a trip to Washington just before the Jan. 6 strike on the U.S. Capitol affirmed Wednesday regarding a large store of tools the reactionary radical team socked away in a Virginia lodging space.

Taking the fill in the revolutionary conspiracy theory scenario versus Oath Keepers owner Stewart Rhodes and also 4 affiliates, Terry Cummings revealed jurors an AR-15 gun and also an orange package for ammo that he helped in the alleged simple response pressure the Oath Keepers had actually presented at the lodging away from Washington in the event they needed to have tools.

“I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” mentioned Cummings, an expert that participated in the Oath Keepers in Florida in 2020.

Weapons claims facility to federal government scenario

Prosecutors have actually mentioned crews of Oath Keepers safeguarded the toolbox of guns and also were actually readied to hurry all of them in to the palms of agitators in the funding if needed to have.

The declared crews and also the store of tools are actually a core item of the Department of Justice’s scenario versus Rhodes and also 4 affiliates demanded along with revolutionary conspiracy theory in the Jan. 6 strike. Members of the Oath Keepers stowed away the guns only outside Washington area restrictions, offered the capitol building’s more durable weapon legislations.

Authorities have actually declared the crews and also the accumulation of divisions were actually developed to obtain tools in to Oath Keepers’ palms rapidly if they were actually needed to have to assist a story to cease the transactions of energy coming from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden.

Cummings’ testament can be found in the 2nd full week of the test that is actually counted on to last a number of full weeks. The others on test are actually Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia; Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida; Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio; and also Kelly Meggs of Dunnellon, Florida.

Defense firmly insists powers were actually protective

Defense attorneys have actually certainly not refuted the life of the simple response crews yet kept in mind that they were actually certainly never released on Jan. 6. They have actually indicted district attorneys of wrongly representing all of them as an infiltration pressure.

Defense attorneys possess mentioned the Oath Keepers commonly established simple response powers for activities, yet urge they were actually protective powers merely to become made use of to guard versus brutality coming from antifa lobbyists or even in the unlikely event Trump implemented the Insurrection Act. They are actually certainly not dealing with any type of weapon fees for carrying the tools to Virginia.

Rhodes’ attorneys have actually mentioned they will certainly suggest that cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before Jan. 6 were in preparation for orders he anticipated from Trump under the Insurrection Act, which gives presidents wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary.

Cummings told jurors that he traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 with other Oath Keepers to be part of a VIP security detail for Trump’s rally at the Ellipse. He said he saw it as an opportunity to “express my First Amendment rights” and see a sitting president speak, which he had never done.

Cummings said his understanding was the quick reaction forces “would potentially be used not as an offensive situation, but more as a show of force.”

Cummings said he was part of a group that acted as a security team for a VIP at Trump’s rally before the riot. Cummings and other Oath Keepers left before Trump’s speech was finished and went toward the Capitol.

He recalled Meggs talked about entering the Capitol – something Cummings didn’t think was a good idea. He then split off to find a bathroom, and when he returned the group was gone. The group entered the Capitol while he was away, he said. Up to an hour later, Cummings rejoined fellow Oath Keepers from Florida, and eventually Rhodes appeared as well.

Gun boxes, rifle cases, suitcases of ammunition

Cummings said he did certainly not hear any talk about plans to storm or attack the Capitol, though he also said he wasn’t in a position of leadership. He has not faced criminal charges, was subpoenaed to testify for the government and acknowledged on the stand that he has contributed to the legal defense fund of some of the defendants.

Authorities have said that Meggs and the Florida Oath Keepers on Jan. 5 brought gun boxes, rifle cases and suitcases filled with ammunition to the Virginia hotel that served as the home for the quick reaction force. Another team coming from Arizona brought weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last 30 days, according to court papers. A team from North Carolina had rifles in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors have described surveillance footage that they say shows Oath Keepers rolling bags, large bins and what appears to be at least one rifle case into the hotel.

Over several days in early January, Rhodes spent $15,500 on guns, including an AR-platform rifle, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, prosecutors have said. Caldwell, in one message, suggested getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River into the Oath Keepers’ “waiting arms.”

A former Oath Keeper from North Carolina last week described setting up a quick reaction force for the “Million MAGA March” in Washington on Nov. 14, 2020, in case Trump invoked the Insurrection Act. Thousands of Trump supporters that day gathered at Freedom Plaza along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to rally behind Trump’s false election claims.

The former Oath Keeper, John Zimmerman, informed jurors that the Oath Keepers stashed at least a dozen rifles and several handguns in his van parked at Arlington National Cemetery to serve as the quick reaction force on that occasion. He mentioned they certainly never took the guns into Washington.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston helped in this file.