Judge: America owes Oath Keeper 'a debt of gratitude' for testifying against militia in Jan. 6 trials

WASHINGTON — A federal judge lauded an Oath Keeper on Friday who testified as a key government witness against his former militia members, saying he’d put his personal safety at risk to speak up about the group’s plans on Jan. 6, 2021.

Caleb Berry, 23, of Tampa, Florida, was among the first Jan. 6 defendants to accept a plea deal with the government and agree to cooperate with the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol. He entered his plea in July 2021, just a month after first being contacted by the FBI, to two felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding.

Federal prosecutors described Berry’s testimony as “pivotal” to the successful convictions in two separate trials of nearly a dozen members of the Oath Keepers militia involved in the Capitol riot. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, who presided over all of the Oath Keepers cases, said it was remarkable that Berry, one of the youngest members of the group, was willing to risk his freedom by taking responsibility.

“What people fail to understand, that Mr. Berry got – he seemed to get it pretty quickly – is that this wasn’t just about marching up a set of stairs,” Mehta said. “What this was about… was to violently prevent the laws of this country from being executed.”

“The reality is, the American people owe you a debt of gratitude,” Mehta said.

Although Berry never served in law enforcement or the armed forces, he joined the Oath Keepers militia in 2020 at the age of 19 in response to civil unrest around the country during the protests following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in May of that year. When Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes called his militia to D.C. on Jan. 6, Berry was one of numerous members of the Florida state chapter to answer. And when a group led by Florida state leader Kelly Meggs entered the U.S. Capitol in what prosecutors described as a military-style “stack” formation, Berry joined them – heading straight for the U.S. House of Representatives side in search of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

While no member of the Oath Keepers has been charged with using a weapon on Jan. 6, Berry testified at trial that he was aware the militia had brought and stored numerous firearms at a hotel just outside of D.C. Prosecutors alleged the guns were intended for a quick reaction force, or "QRF," to be activated if former President Donald Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.

"God help us if Stewart Rhodes had made a simple phone call," Mehta said Friday.

Unlike Jon Schaffer, an Oath Keepers lifetime member who also cooperated with the government and who was also sentenced to probation Friday, Berry was privy not only to Rhodes’ public calls to oppose the transfer of power but private, encrypted chats where the militia discussed its plans for Jan. 6.

“He was aware of the group’s discussions about the need to use any means necessary, up to and including the use of force, to stop what they saw as the theft of the election,” prosecutors wrote. “He understood that the group was bringing a large cache of firearms to D.C. to support those efforts. And he then joined this group in traveling to D.C. and ultimately breaching the Capitol to try to stop the certification proceeding.”

Also unlike Schaffer, Berry was called to the witness stand twice during trials of his fellow Oath Keepers. During the second group trial in January 2023 of four members of the militia – Joseph Hackett, Roberto Minuta, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo – Berry told jurors Meggs had huddled the group up and told them they were going into the Capitol to try to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote. Meggs and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy by a separate jury two months prior. Hackett, Minuta, Moerschel and Vallejo were all ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy as well, along with other charges.

In a sentencing memo filed last week, prosecutors said Berry faced a recommended sentencing guideline of 12-18 months in prison. They, however, asked Mehta to sentence Berry to a term of three years of probation. In a downward departure for substantial assistance, also known as a “5K letter,” prosecutors said Berry was the only cooperator to testify at more than one Oath Keepers trial and that he had been prepared to testify at two others as well.

“Berry’s testimony was significant. His testimony about the huddle among members of Stack One when they reached the Capitol grounds, in which Meggs told the group that they were going to go inside the Capitol ‘to stop the vote count,’ provided direct evidence of the intent of the group as they started marching up the steps of the Capitol. Such evidence was not available from any source other than those present for the huddle,” prosecutors wrote. Similarly, Berry provided context and meaning to the scores of messages introduced into evidence from the co-conspirators’ Signal chats, which could only be provided by someone who read and participated in these chats in real time.”

Prosecutors also noted that Berry endured enormous pressure from allowing the details of his cooperation agreement to be made public and while on the stand in both trials.

“He literally soaked his clothing with sweat during his testimony, and he was physically sick after he finished with his sixth cross-examination during the Parker trial,” prosecutors wrote. “This Court should give Berry credit for the danger and risk of injury to himself and to his family, and the actual harm to his mental health, that resulted from his cooperation in this case.”

On Friday, Mehta agreed. He said Berry had been tested by multiple attorneys and his testimony judged by 24 jurors, and “not one of them ultimately dented his credibility.”

“He did what was right,” Mehta said. “He did what was honorable. He did what was decent.”

Mehta granted the government’s request and sentenced Berry to three years of supervised release, along with $500 in restitution.

Berry spoke briefly before his sentence was read, thanking prosecutors for knocking him off a path with what he implied would have been a dark and uncertain end.

“It has absolutely shaken by future,” Berry said. “But it is something I have accepted. I take full responsibility for my actions that day.”

Other Oath Keepers charged in connection with the Capitol riot who have been convicted at trial have received widely varying sentences, including some of the longest handed down to date. Rhodes, the militia’s founder, was sentenced in May 2023 to 18 years in prison. Meggs, the Florida chapter leader who led Berry and others into the Capitol, was sentenced to 12 years. Jessica Watkins, a U.S. Army Veteran from Woodstock, Ohio, received 8.5 years behind bars.

Others have received far lesser terms. Meggs’ wife, Connie Meggs, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiring to obstruct the joint session of Congress. At least three defendants – William Isaacs, a 23-year-old aspiring firefighter from Florida, and Sandra and Bennie Parker, ages 63 and 72, respectively, of Ohio – have been sentenced to five years of probation.