Oath Keepers defendant downplays ‘heavy weapons’ message

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A defendant charged alongside members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is playing down his messages about ferrying what he called heavy weapons across the Potomac River. In testimony Tuesday, Thomas Caldwell said instead the messages were examples of “creative writing.” Caldwell says he was never serious about trying to secure a boat to transport weapons across the river from a massive arsenal that Oath Keepers had stashed in a hotel room. The guns never made it to Washington but his query about heavy weapons was among prosecutors’ most chilling pieces of evidence in the case that accuses Caldwell and others of a violent plot to stop the transfer of presidential power.