Oath Keeper Graydon Young Said The January 6 Attack Was Like A Bastille Type Moment.

Comment A star witness for the government in the conspiracy trial of Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes testified that he believed the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill could start a new American revolution led by the extremist group. “It felt like it was a ‘Bastille-type’ moment in history, like in the French Revolution,” Florida Oath Keepers member Graydon Young testified. “I guess I was acting like a traitor, someone who was acting against my government,” he said at the trial of Rhodes and four others in federal court in Washington. Monday’s testimony from Young, 57, of the Tampa area, is critical for the prosecution. He is one of three expected witnesses who have pleaded guilty to at least one of the three overlapping conspiracies in which Rhodes and others are charged. The Oath Keepers’ co-defendants are accused of wearing military gear in a “stack” formation outside the Capitol and carrying firearms just outside Washington. Prosecutors must prove that even though Rhodes did not enter the building that day, he and his co-defendants conspired to violently oppose the legal transition of presidential power, obstruct Congress as it convened to ratify his election results 2020 or obstruct lawmakers. What you need to know about the Oath Keepers trial Young said he believed there was a tacit understanding among Oath Keepers involved in coded communications with Rhodes that he had asked to violently oppose President Biden from taking office, although Young said there was no specific order to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 or express agreement to commit a crime. “There was no specific plan that you knew of to breach the Capitol doors, is that correct?” Rhodes’ attorney James Lee Bright asked during cross-examination. “Yes,” Yang replied. But Young told prosecutor Jeffrey S. Nestler: “I was involved in a conspiracy to obstruct Congress. … We would disrupt Congress, wherever they met.” “I felt it was common sense,” he said. “We talked about doing something about election fraud when we got there on the 6th, and when the crowds came through the barricades in the building, the opportunity to do something presented itself.” Young, a retired civilian software program manager and Navy Reserves information systems technician, told jurors how after the 2020 election he grew tired of his and his wife’s rental properties and childcare businesses and spent “two to six” hours a day following President Donald Trump’s false claims of massive voter fraud. Young said he believed further protests would be “ineffective,” knew the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress was the “last step” before Biden’s inauguration two weeks later, and joined the Oath Keepers because “I felt that something had to change or be Done.” “I got really emotionally invested in what was going on. It started clouding my judgment and changed my priorities” away from his family, Young said. Young signed up as a bodyguard for Trump political confidant Roger Stone in Florida, where he met a paramilitary trainer. Young, who owned 10 firearms, including two military-style AR-15 rifles, said he explored firearms training using simulated rounds for his security team and reported to Rhodes and Florida Oath Keepers co-defendant Kelly Meggs that both directed the Oath Keepers’ actions in Washington that day, Young testified. On the stand, Young said he remembered Trump’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, saying that the voting machines had been hacked and the U.S. Govt. was he an accomplice; he believed it was time to stand up to a corrupt government “that forces us to accept invalid elections and everything else.” Young testified that Meggs told other Florida members in encrypted conversations in December 2020 that the Oath Keepers were ready to be the potential leaders of the “millions” once the resistance began. When Young worried that the opposing federal authority was a “silly case” and he and others doubted they could stop voter certification, Rhodes unexpectedly joined the conversation to “motivate” them — “like the CEO featured in your conversation. “ “It’s not a fool’s errand,” Rhodes said in a thread on Christmas Day, shortly after another participant claimed, “We’ll be on top of 1776.2.” Congress had to be afraid and convinced “it will be a time of torches and pitchforks[f] they’re not doing the right thing,” Rhodes said, adding that if Trump didn’t act by calling in the military and private militia to stay in power, the Oath-bearers would. Young said he took it as an implicit understanding that Oath Keeper patriots would be up against an “enemy” made up of Congress, Biden and the heads of federal agencies: “I didn’t know exactly how [Oath Keepers] would he act or when… — if the general population would stand up to stand up to the fraud, and then we would step in and help them, or force them to do something — but I thought it meant that after Biden was confirmed there would then be a backlash and resistance”. Young said he did not bring a rifle to Washington because he traveled by air, and Meggs said he would bring him a rifle. However, Young said he and his sister, a former police officer in North Carolina, brought some guns with them to the D.C. area. In Washington that day, Meggs made the decision to have a group of Oath Keepers head to the Capitol to meet Rhodes after hearing that police barricades had been breached and were in communication with Rhodes, Young testified. Former Oath Keeper Outlines Dark Worldview Behind US Capitol Attack Once there, Young said he put his hand on the shoulder of co-defendant Kenneth Harrelson, another member and co-defendant of the Florida Oath Keepers. Young said the pair spent about 30 minutes in the Capitol after “pushing” into the building and joining a crowd that tried to get past police defending the Senate chamber before being pushed back by chemical irritants. Young pleaded guilty in June 2021 to conspiracy and obstructing official proceedings of Congress. He testified after prosecutors offered to drop four other charges and reduce the recommended prison sentence from 63 to 78 months in a deal for his “substantial cooperation.” Young’s testimony, which comes in the fifth week of the trial and after proceedings were halted last week by Rhodes testing positive for the coronavirus, could be central to whether prosecutors can distinguish the actions of Rhodes and his co-defendants. of which approximately 300 defendants. attempting or conspiring to obstruct Congress, but not using force to oppose the government. Two weeks ago, a second associate, Jason Dolan, 46, of Wellington, Florida, testified that members of the group were prepared to prevent Congress from certifying the outcome of the 2020 election “by any means necessary,” including of armed combat, and faced potentially death by “treacherous” death. “It would be treacherous to fight against what I saw as an illegitimate form of government,” Dolan explained. Like Young, Dolan testified that Rhodes had said the Oath Keepers would act even if Trump did not: “We will act to stop the certification of the election … by any means necessary. That’s why we brought our firearms.” But Dolan also testified that he was not aware of any order or “specific mission” to enter the building and viewed it as “commander’s intent” or a general goal to keep Trump in office.