A Donald Trump supporter who teamed up with members of the Oath Keepers to storm the U.S. Capitol building has testified before a grand jury and reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in which he admits he entered into a conspiracy to obstruct the Jan. 6 certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.
Mark Grods, according to a criminal information filed ahead of his plea agreement hearing on Wednesday afternoon, will admit he was part of a military “stack” formation and entered the Capitol building carrying a large stick on Jan. 6. Grods will admit that he brought firearms to Washington, D.C., and “eventually provided them to another individual to store in a Virginia hotel.” (Trump supporters wanted to bring weapons to the Capitol on Jan. 6, but were worried they’d be stopped by law enforcement before they reached the Capitol under D.C. gun laws.)
Grods stayed in the Mayflower Hotel, according to the criminal information, and entered the Capitol building through the eastern doors to the rotunda “minutes after” others Grods traveled with “entered the same doors and assaulted law enforcement officers in the Rotunda.” He entered the building “with a large stick,” the agreement said.
The two-count criminal information, which charges Grods with the conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding as well as aiding and abetting, includes a cooperation component.
In a separate filing, the government noted that Grods’ plea deal “is part of an ongoing grand jury investigation and plea negotiation related to United States v. Thomas Caldwell, et al.,” ― the large Oath Keepers conspiracy case involving more than a dozen defendants ― and that his plea deal includes a cooperation component.
“Delaying the government’s need to notify other defendants about Mark Grod’s related case between the filing of the criminal Information on June 28 and his public plea hearing on June 30, 2021, will ensure the defendant’s safety while he cooperates pursuant to his plea agreement and testifies before the grand jury,” the government wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.