Donald Trump at centre of Oath Keepers novel defence in January 6 case

The defence team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the centre.

Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group, are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the siege on Jan. 6, 2021, were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president orders that never came.

Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power from the Republican incumbent to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters.

Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday.

Rhodes intends to take the stand to argue he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act to call up a militia to support him, his lawyers have said.

Trump didn't do that, but Rhodes' team says that what prosecutors alleg