WASHINGTON — Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn testified through the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial on Monday that members of the far-right group didn’t help him through the Jan. 6 assault.
Dunn, armed with a rifle, stood close to Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace on Jan. 6 and interacted with members of the Oath Keepers. Protection legal professionals have tried to counsel that members of the Oath Keepers, after invading the U.S. Capitol, got here to Dunn’s support, a categorization that Dunn rejected.
“They had been making an attempt to get previous me, and I ended them,” Dunn stated. “They didn’t, I did.”
Video performed by prosecutors captured a few of his interactions with the Oath Keepers within the Capitol.
“We now have dozens of officers down, they’re taking them out on stretchers. Ya’ll are f—ing us up,” Dunn stated he instructed rioters in one of many movies performed.
“I used to be distressed, I used to be offended, and I used to be scared,” Dunn testified. “Through the occasion, it was nearly surviving.” The emotions of betrayal got here afterward, he stated.
A federal prosecutor requested what would have been useful for rioters to do on Jan. 6.
“Leaving the constructing,” Dunn stated.
Stewart Rhodes and 4 different members of the Oath Keepers face fees of seditious conspiracy and are accused of establishing “fast response forces” loaded up with weapons exterior of Washington. Federal prosecutors say that Rhodes regretted not having weapons on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and different Oath Keepers stated they believed that Rhodes had contacts near the White Home.
Forward of the trial, Joshua James, Brian Ulrich and William Todd Wilson pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy. Fellow Oath Keeper Jason Dolan, who additionally pleaded responsible, testified through the trial that he was able to die to maintain Trump in workplace. James, Ulrich and Wilson might find yourself testifying this week.
Protection attorneys for the Oath Keepers defendants have tried to counsel that they had been helping regulation enforcement and never a part of a plan to overhaul the Capitol. Footage from the scene reveals that one other member of the Oath Keepers did in reality escort a line of cops by means of the mob on the east aspect of the constructing on Jan. 6, however he instructed NBC Information that he was not in communication with the Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy.
U.S. Capitol Police Particular Agent David Lazarus, a member of Pelosi’s safety element, additionally testified on Monday that the Oath Keepers had been speaking to Dunn about politics and the election, amongst different subjects. Lazarus stated he heard a few of their interactions as he headed out and in of Pelosi’s workplace making an attempt to evacuate staffers who had been sheltering in place.
“It was very antagonistic dialogue between the parents in [tactical] gear — the rioters — and Dunn,” he stated.
Throughout Dunn’s testimony, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Alexandra Hughes launched video that Dunn filmed on Jan. 5 by the Supreme Court docket, when a person got here as much as Dunn and requested him if he knew the situation of the Oath Keepers command put up.
“I had no clue what he was speaking about,” Dunn stated. “I checked out my colleague and stated, ‘Oath Keepers? What the f— are the Oath Keepers?'”
