Oath Keepers Founder Claims 2020 Vote Invalid at Sedition Trial

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told jurors at his seditious conspiracy trial that he thought the 2020 election was illegal and he had feared for the safety of then-President Donald Trump.

“I believed the election was unconstitutional,” said Rhodes, one of five defendants in a criminal case stemming from the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. “That made it invalid,” he said Friday. “You can’t really have a winner in an unconstitutional election.”

The government rested its case Thursday after presenting five weeks of testimony and evidence to jurors, including violent messages and video footage of some defendants breaching ...