DOJ Won’t Retry Oath Keepers’ Operations Director on Felony Obstruction Count

Michael Greene was found guilty of a single misdemeanor count from Jan. 6

The Oath Keepers flag on display at an event in St. Paul, Minn., in an undated file photo. Archive.org/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

The man who served as operations director for the Oath Keepers on Jan. 6 in Washington D.C. will not be retried on the one felony count on which the jury in his criminal case could not reach a verdict, his attorney said on March 31.

On March 20, Michael Greene, 39, of Indianapolis, was found not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties, and tampering with documents and proceedings—all felony charges.

In the third Oath Keepers trial that ended on March 20, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on Greene for the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. Jurors did find Greene guilty of the misdemeanor count of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

“Complete victory,” wrote William Shipley, one of Greene’s attorneys, on social media.

Greene was asked by Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III to serve as operations director for Oath Keepers security duties in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, after the original director became ill. Greene is not a member of Oath Keepers but is Rhodes’ close friend.

Two Oath Keepers inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. DOJ/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

“I am not an Oath Keeper. I was hired by Stewart to do protection and set up security,” Greene told The Epoch Times in 2022.

Greene’s indictment on June 24, 2022, surprised some case observers and defense attorneys. It came 13 months after the FBI conducted two interviews with him that contradicted much of what the Department of Justice accused Rhodes and more than a dozen Oath Keepers of.

Greene told the FBI that there was no Oath Keepers plan to attack the Capitol. His role on Jan. 6 was to oversee security for speakers at various events at or near the Capitol, he said.

Oath Keepers who entered the Capitol building didn’t do so at his instruction or that of Rhodes, he told agents, according to FBI case notes in which he was described as “Person 10.”

“The security detail encompassed stage security and the protection of those individuals as they returned to their vehicles,” Greene’s FBI report reads. “Person 10 cited the need for this protection after the Trump rally in December [2020] when individuals had been attacked by Antifa as they were leaving the rally.”

Unlike nine Oath Keepers and affiliates, Greene was not charged with seditious conspiracy.

Rhodes and Kelly Meggs were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in the first Oath Keepers trial that ran from Sept. 27 through Nov. 29. Three other defendants—Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell and Jessica Watkins—were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy.

Four other Oath Keepers—Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel, and Edward Vallejo—were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Oath Keepers trial No. 2, which ran from Dec. 6, 2022, through Jan. 23, 2023.

Prosecutors contended that Rhodes and the Oath Keepers conspired to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 in order to prevent tallying of the Electoral College votes and the “peaceful transfer of power” from President Donald Trump to Joseph Biden Jr.