• Graydon Young, the first Oath Keeper to plead guilty to conspiracy in connection to January 6, 2021, told a jury Monday in the trial of five alleged leaders of the far-right group that after the 2020 election, he and other members believed the US government was covering up election fraud and the militia needed to act.
• Young testified on cross-examination that there was no explicit agreement between himself and other Oath Keepers to enter the Capitol building on January 6, but that he assumed the group felt as “excited and motivated” as he did when they arrived at the Capitol steps.
• Defense attorneys doubled down on the admission, noting that no one had ordered Young to act.
• “You went in willingly?” James Lee Bright, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers’ leader Stewart Rhodes, asked.
• Young responded, “Yes.”
• “Not at anyone’s command?” Bright asked.
• “No, I did not” Young said. Young described the stack formation and breach as “spontaneous,” and said that there was “no explicit prior planning to do what we did.”

Tagged: Jan. 6 Fallout