宣誓守卫者的一名前成员星期二作证说，他认为他和极右组织的其他成员正在准备为阻止乔·拜登总统就职而战当他们于1月6日前往华盛顿时，联邦政府认为这一陈述支持了其案件，因为它试图给五名宣誓人定罪，这是一项很少使用的煽动阴谋罪。
46岁的杰森·多兰(Jason Dolan)一年多前承认犯有共谋和妨碍官方诉讼的罪行，他与政府达成了一项合作协议，打击民兵组织。
作为认罪的一部分，多兰承认，2021年1月6日，当他前往华盛顿时，他带了一支M4步枪，并将其留在弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的一家酒店;他是所谓的誓言守卫者“堆栈”的一部分，有人看到他在起义期间爬上国会大厦的东台阶。
多兰是第一个来自誓言守卫者的合作证人，站出来反对该组织的五名成员，他们目前正在接受审判，罪名是煽动阴谋和其他一系列被指控的重罪。该组织的创始人斯图尔特·罗兹(Stewart Rhodes)也在被告之列。这五人不服罪。
审判现已进入第三周预计将持续到11月。
退役前在海军陆战队服役20年的多兰周二作证说，他是一名酒鬼，在2020年观看与总统选举有关的视频和在线内容时变得越来越激进。他说，当他在寻找方法“发泄”唐纳德·特朗普输给拜登的时候，他找到了誓言守卫者的佛罗里达州分会，然后发现了这个主要由前军人和执法人员组成的团体。
检察官向佛罗里达州的其他宣誓者展示了多兰通过加密服务Signal发送的文本，他在那里公开讨论准备诉诸暴力，以阻止拜登在2021年1月就职。
根据法庭上显示的内容，多兰在一条信息中写道，“如果我幸运的话，我会被判入狱，被贴上叛国的标签，或者被我要保护的人开枪打死。”。在政府的质问下，多兰说他相信自己当时已经做好了战斗的心理准备，并“用行动支持我的话”
美国助理检察官杰夫·内斯特勒(Jeff Nestler)向多兰询问了罗兹2020年12月底给该组织的一封邮件，罗兹在邮件中表示，“我们需要推动特朗普履行职责。如果他不做，我们就做我们的。”
多兰说，他认为罗兹在信息中明确表示，如果特朗普不打算采取行动，那么誓言守卫者必须愿意抵制“非法政府”。
“有一种感觉，我们的国家正在从我们的指缝中溜走，我们需要保卫我们的国家，”多兰说。“征服或者死亡。”
政府随后向陪审团展示了多兰的M4突击步枪他于1月6日将其存放在弗吉尼亚的一家酒店直接问他是否准备用它来拿起武器反对政府。多兰回答:“是的。”
他后来说，在从佛罗里达开车过来的路上，他带了“数百”发子弹。
Demonstrators attempt to enter the U.S. Capitol building during a protest in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.
埃里克·李/彭博通过盖蒂图片，文件
他说，他和其他成员把他们的枪支存放在华盛顿郊外的一家酒店，因为他们知道，如果时任总统特朗普援引《叛乱法》，他们就可以把武器带到城里，与政府中支持特朗普的力量一起打击反对特朗普的人。
“你会与支持特朗普的势力作战，基本上是与美国政府内部支持拜登的势力作战?”雀巢问道。
“是的，”多兰说。
当被问及更直接的问题时，多兰说，誓言守卫者认为，如果特朗普不援引叛乱法案来阻止对拜登胜利的认证，那么他们将不得不自己解决问题。
多兰说:“我们将——我们将采取行动，以任何必要的手段阻止对选举的认证。"这就是我们带武器的原因。"
在整个审判过程中，辩护律师否认该团体曾计划使用储存在国会大厦附近的武器袭击政府，并否认所谓的“快速反应部队”本质上是防御性的，如果该团体受到反特朗普抗议者的攻击。
多兰星期二作证说，当他和其他人在国会大厦外面时，当他们得知当时的副总统迈克·彭斯拒绝推迟选举认证时，情绪变得愤怒。
多兰说:“我想你会有一种明显的感觉，人群从一个非常、非常开心、快乐的人群变成了一个非常愤怒的人群。”。“你几乎可以感觉到人群的变化。”
五名受审的誓约守卫者中的三名——肯尼斯·哈里森、凯利·梅格斯和杰西卡·沃特金斯——于1月6日进入国会大厦;另外两位创始人托马斯·考德威尔和罗兹则没有。但是检察官指控考德威尔和罗兹是策划和组织的关键。
多兰作证说，当人们准备爬上国会大厦的台阶时，他听到支持特朗普的暴徒开始高呼，“宣誓者，宣誓者”，他说这“感觉很棒”，因为这个团体似乎是被召集来帮忙的。
他说，他加入人群高呼“叛国，叛国”，因为他真的相信这就是国会议员在认证选举中所做的。他说，他想让他们感到害怕，从而“害怕做正确的事情”
Former Oath Keeper was prepared to fight and 'die' for Trump on Jan. 6, he says
A former member of the Oath Keepers testified Tuesday that he believed he and other members of the far-right group were preparingto fight to prevent President Joe Biden from taking officeas they traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 -- an account that the federal government believes bolsters its case as it seeks to convict five Oath Keepers of the rarely-used charge of seditious conspiracy.
Jason Dolan, 46, pleaded guilty more than a year ago to conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding and he entered into a cooperation agreement with the government against the militia group.
As part of his plea, Dolan admitted that when he traveled to Washington, he brought an M4 rifle that he left at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 6, 2021; and that he was part of the so-called "stack" formation of Oath Keepers that was seen climbing the east steps of the Capitol during the insurrection.
Dolan is the first cooperating witness from the Oath Keepers to take the stand against five members of the group currently standing trial on charges of seditious conspiracy and a host of other alleged felonies. Among the accused is Stewart Rhodes, the group's founder. The five have pleaded not guilty.
The trialis now in its third weekand is expected to stretch well into November.
Dolan, who served in the Marines for 20 years before retiring, testified on Tuesday that he was an alcoholic and grew increasingly radicalized in 2020 as he watched videos and online content pertaining to the presidential election. He said he found the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers as he was looking for ways to "vent" about Donald Trump's loss to Biden and then discovered the group, made up mostly of former military and members of law enforcement.
Prosecutors showed texts from Dolan -- sent via Signal, an encrypted service -- to other Florida Oath Keepers where he openly discussed being prepared to resort to violence to prevent Biden from taking office in January 2021.
"If I'm lucky I get a prison sentence, tagged with treason, or a bullet from the very people I would protect," Dolan wrote in one message, according to what was shown in court. Under questioning from the government, Dolan said he believed he was mentally preparing himself at the time to fight and "back up my words with actions."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nestler asked Dolan about a late-December 2020 message from Rhodes to the group where Rhodes stated, "We need to push T[r]ump to do his duty. If he doesn't, we will do ours."
Dolan said he believed Rhodes meant specifically in the message that if Trump wasn't going to act then the Oath Keepers would have to be willing to resist an "illegitimate government."
"There was a feeling our country was slipping out of our fingers, and we needed to defend our country," Dolan said. "Conquer or die."
The government then showed the jury Dolan's M4 assault riflethat he stored at a Virginia hotel on Jan. 6and asked him directly if he was preparing to use it to take up arms against the government. Dolan answered, "Yes."
He later said he brought "hundreds" of rounds of ammunition with him on the drive from Florida.
He said that he and other members stored their firearms at a hotel just outside Washington with the understanding that if then-President Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, they'd be able to bring their weapons into the city to work alongside pro-Trump forces in the government against people opposed to Trump.
"You would be fighting with pro-Trump forces basically against pro-Biden forces within the United States government?" Nestler asked.
"Yes," Dolan said.
Asked more directly, Dolan said that Oath Keepers believed if Trump didn't stop the certification of Biden's victory by invoking the Insurrection Act, then they would have to take matters into their own hands.
"That we will -- we will act to stop the certification of the election now, by any means necessary," Dolan said. "That's why we brought our firearms."
Defense attorneys throughout the trial have denied the group ever planned to use weapons stored near the Capitol to attack the government and that so-called "quick reaction forces" were meant to be defensive in nature, if the group was to come under attack by anti-Trump protesters.
Dolan testified Tuesday that when he and others were outside the Capitol, the mood grew furious as they learned then-Vice President Mike Pence had refused to delay certification of the election.
"I think you kind of felt a palpable feeling where the crowd went from being [a] pretty, pretty happy, joyful crowd to a pretty pissed off crowd," Dolan said. "You could almost feel the crowd change."
Three of the five Oath Keepers on trial -- Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins -- entered the Capitol on Jan. 6; the other two, Thomas Caldwell and Rhodes, the founder, did not. But prosecutors have alleged Caldwell and Rhodes were key in the planning and organizing.
Dolan testified that when people were preparing to climb the steps of the Capitol, he heard members of the pro-Trump mob begin to chant, "Oath Keepers, Oath Keepers," which he said "felt pretty neat" in that the group was seemingly being called up to help.
He said he joined the crowd in chants of "treason, treason" because he truly believed that's what members of Congress had done in certifying the election. He wanted them to feel afraid of him, he said -- and so be "scared into doing the right thing."
