At times, he was admonished by the judge to simply answer questions and refrain from making speeches.
He is on trial with two co-defendants, Coleman Barney and Lonnie Vernon, Fairbanks-area men who were self-styled officers in the Alaska Peacemakers Militia and, prosecutors allege, co-conspirators in the murder and weapons plot.
Cox said he got involved in politics as an organizer for Republican Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign and ran for the state legislature that year, losing in the Republican primary. Afterwards he wanted to continue with his political activism, he said.
He defended his involvement in the "sovereign citizen" movement, in which individuals consider themselves governments not subject to state or federal courts.
"All that means is that the people are the masters and the government is the servant," he said.
But prosecutors at the trial, which started a month ago, have portrayed Cox's activism as more sinister.
They presented evidence of a plot called "2-4-1," in which two government officials would be killed or kidnapped for every militia member or supporter killed or arrested.
They played recorded conversations in which Cox - who was under state scrutiny in a domestic-violence case - spoke about hanging bodies of state court employees so they would "dangle like the wind chimes of liberty."
Among the prosecution witnesses were an informant from within Cox's militia, federal and state law enforcement agents and Cox's mother-in-law.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case last week. The defense has called a handful of witnesses, but Cox was the first defendant to take the stand in the trial.
Cox is expected to return to the stand Tuesday, attorneys said.
Vernon and his wife, Karen, face separate charges of plotting to kill a federal judge who presided over their tax-evasion case, along with the judge's family members. That trial is scheduled to start in September.
(Editing by Andrew Stern)
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