‘The prosecution was caught withholding exculpatory evidence several times, and we had no doubt there was more that was withheld,’ Stewart Rhodes says.
Jury verdicts that sent members of the Oath Keepers to federal prison for up to 18 years should be overturned because two Capitol Police officers committed “willful perjury” in the first Jan. 6 Oath Keepers trial, according to the group’s founder.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III said he knew during his 2022 seditious-conspiracy trial that Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus and Officer Harry Dunn gave false testimony, but he didn’t have video proof until a media outlet published it on Oct. 4.
“Of course, we defendants knew both Dunn and Lazarus were lying on the stand,” Mr. Rhodes told The Epoch Times, “but because the government withheld critical exculpatory video evidence from the defense, we couldn’t use that video to catch them in the lie.”
On Oct. 4, journalist Steve Baker at Blaze Media reported his examination of a previously unseen Capitol security video. He said it showed that events involving the Oath Keepers on Jan. 6, 2021, could not have happened as described under oath by Mr. Lazarus and Mr. Dunn.
On Jan. 6, Mr. Lazarus served as the head of the security detail for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The revelations led Oath Keepers defense attorney Brad Geyer—who represented Kenneth Harrelson at trial—to call for the guilty verdicts to be overturned.
He said the security video “raises profound concerns about the integrity of the entire trial proceedings.”
Mr. Rhodes echoed that sentiment, saying that Mr. Baker’s revelations prove there was “planned, coached, willful perjury and subornation of perjury committed by the government in our trial.”
“Our convictions should be overturned, and we should be set free because none of us committed the crimes for which we were prosecuted and convicted by a hopelessly biased D.C. jury,” Mr. Rhodes said in a statement from the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.
“We are innocent, and if our justice system were working as it should be, that is what would happen,” Mr. Rhodes said. “I can only trust that God will see justice done.”
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