O Oath Keepers tried to speak directly with Trump, another member says

WASHINGTON - The Oath Keepers founder accused of seditious conspiracy charges tried to speak directly with President Donald Trump on the night of January 6, 2021, and implored an intermediary to tell the president to use militia groups to stop the transfer of power, a fellow Oath Keepers member said in court Wednesday.

William Todd Wilson, a member of the far-right militia group who pleaded guilty Wednesday to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, said he joined Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in a suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel near the Capitol shortly after the attack and was listened to on speakerphone by an unnamed Trump intermediary.

As he listened, Rhodes heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose a transfer of power, Wilson and prosecutors said. According to the agreed-upon statement of offense in Wilson's case, the person on the line denied Rhodes request to speak directly with President Trump.

Wilson said that a phone call made just after 5 p.m. would have taken place when rioters were still being cleared on the Capitol after Trump called the rioters very special but before he tweeted at 6: 01 p.m. Remember this day forever! Jonathan Moseley, a disbarred attorney who has worked with Rhodes, said Wednesday night that the Oath Keepers have always scoffed at the idea that they had any way to talk to Trump or his team. Attorneys for Rhodes, who has pleaded not guilty, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. They pushed back in comments to CNN.

Phillip Linder, one of Rhodes' attorneys, said none of them show evidence of an actual plan to do something.

Wilson has been cooperating with the FBI and Justice Department investigation into Jan. 6 and agreed to testify before grand juries and jury trials if necessary.

Reporters from NBC News and CNN were waiting outside the courtroom before Wilson's plea hearing Wednesday, as Wilson, his lawyers and government officials discussed the logistics of Wilson's testimony before a federal grand jury.

Wilson was the third Oath Keepers member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy. In a separate hearing after Wilson's guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to release Arizona Oath Keeper Edward Vallejo, who is also facing a seditious conspiracy charge, until trial.

The FBI arrested nearly 800 people in connection with the Jan. 6 attack in the Capitol, and more than 250 defendants have pleaded guilty. The Biden administration requested more resources to prosecute cases already in the pipeline and the hundreds more that are expected to come, because of the names of hundreds more who have not yet been arrested.