By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A recruit of the far-right Oath Keepers group displayed for a jury on Wednesday the AR-15 assault-style rifle he said was among a large stash of firearms cases he saw in a hotel room the day before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Terry Cummings, a Florida resident and former member of the U.S. military, was testifying in the trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four others. The defendants are accused of plotting to use force to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory in a failed bid to keep then-President Donald Trump in power.
Rhodes and his four co-defendants - Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson and Kelly Meggs - are charged with seditious conspiracy, a rarely prosecuted crime under a statute dating to the Civil War era that is defined as attempting "to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States."
On Jan. 6, some of the group's members were among the thousands of pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol, interrupting the electoral vote count and sending members of Congress scrambling for cover. Several of the defendants were among them.
Prosecutors called Cummings to the stand to show evidence that the Oath Keepers had organized a so-called quick reaction force of armed members who were waiting across the Potomac River at a hotel in northern Virginia to ferry arms into the capital if called upon.
Cummings acknowledged leaving his assault-style rifle and box of ammunition in a room in a Virginia hotel filled with many cases used to transport firearms. He said he had not seen so many in one place since his days in the military.
He said he had brought his gun only as a "show of force," and that none of the Oath Keepers actually used or attempted to use the weapons left at the hotel on Jan. 6.
"Are you aware of anyone that day had attempted to access the [quick reaction force] in the district?" asked Stanley Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD), an attorney for Meggs.
"Not that I'm aware of," Cummings replied.
Cummings traveled to Washington with Harrelson, and Jason Dolan, another Florida Oath Keeper who pleaded guilty to his role in the attack in September 2021.
He said they traveled there out of frustration over the outcome of the 2020 election, and their plan had been to provide security to certain "VIPs" who were speaking at political rallies.
Cummings, a government witness who appeared under subpoena, said he had donated to the legal defense funds for some of the defendants in the case. He testified that he had not heard about any plans to attack the Capitol.
He has not been criminally charged in the case.
Cummings said he joined the Oath Keepers in 2020 because he was frustrated with violence and protests that broke out in the streets of cities around the country following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.