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Stewart
Rhodes,
founder
and
president
of Oath
Keepers,
speaks
during a
gun
rights
rally at
the
Connecticut
State
Capitol
in
Hartford,
Conn.,
in
2013.(Jared
Ramsdell
/
Associated
Press) |
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Oath
Keepers
founder
Stewart
Rhodes
charged
with
seditious
conspiracy
in Jan.
6
Capitol
riot |
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By
Spencer
S. Hsu,
Devlin
Barrett
washingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON
-
Stewart
Rhodes —
founder
and
leader
of the
extremist
group
Oath
Keepers,
whose
members
are
accused
of being
key
players
in the
Jan. 6
attack
on
Congress
— has
been
indicted
and
arrested
in
connection
with the
riot,
officials
said
Thursday.
The
56-year-old,
who was
at the
Capitol
that day
but has
said he
did not
enter
the
building,
is the
most
high-profile
person
charged
in the
investigation
so far.
He is
charged
with
seditious
conspiracy,
along
with 10
other
Oath
Keepers
members
or
associates,
officials
said.
Most of
those
individuals
were
previously
arrested,
but one,
63-year-old
Edward
Vallejo
of
Phoenix,
is also
facing
charges
as part
of the
case
against
the Oath
Keepers
for the
first
time.
Officials
said
Rhodes
was
arrested
this
morning
in
Little
Elm,
Tex.,
and
Vallejo
was
taken
into
custody
in
Phoenix.
A
federal
grand
jury in
the
District
leveled
the new
charges
focusing
on what
prosecutors
say is a
core
group of
Oath
Keepers
adherents
who
allegedly
planned
for and
participated
in
obstructing
Congress
on the
day
lawmakers
certified
President
Biden’s
2020
election
victory.
The
indictments
unsealed
Thursday
mark the
first
time
anyone
has
faced
charges
of
seditious
conspiracy
for the
Jan. 6
attacks,
though
prosecutors
have
long
signaled
they
were
considering
using
that
rarely
applied
section
of
federal
law.
Oath
Keepers
founder
Stewart
Rhodes
denied
involvement
in the
Capitol
attack
in an
interview
with The
Post on
Feb. 28,
2021. He
was
arrested
on Jan.
13,
2022.
(Aaron
Davis/The
Washington
Post)
In
interviews
with The
Washington
Post
over the
past
year,
Rhodes —
a former
Army
paratrooper
and Yale
Law
graduate
who has
become
one of
the most
visible
figures
of the
far-right
anti-government
movement
— has
repeatedly
denied
wrongdoing.
He said
he was
communicating
with
members
of his
group on
Jan. 6,
2021, in
an
effort
to “keep
them out
of
trouble,”
and
emphasized
that
Oath
Keepers
associates
who did
go into
the
Capitol
“went
totally
off
mission.”
An
attorney
for
Rhodes,
Jonathon
A.
Moseley,
did not
immediately
respond
to a
request
for
comment.
An
earlier
indictment
charged
19 of
alleged
Oath
Keepers
adherents
with
conspiracy
and
aiding
and
abetting
the
obstruction
of
Congress.
Two of
those
individuals
have
pleaded
guilty
and
agreed
to
cooperate
with
investigators.
The rest
have
pleaded
not
guilty
and are
preparing
for
trials
later
this
year.
In cases
in which
people
have
pleaded
guilty,
defendants
acknowledged
they
were
among a
group
that
forced
entry
through
the
Capitol’s
East
Rotunda
doors
after
marching
single-file
in tight
formation
up the
steps
wearing
camouflage
vests,
helmets,
goggles
and Oath
Keepers
insignia.
Some
defendants
also
admitted
to
stashing
guns in
a nearby
Arlington,
Va.,
hotel
for
possible
use by
what
they
called a
“quick
reaction
force.”
The
attack
on the
Capitol
occurred
as
lawmakers
were
gathered
there to
formally
confirm
Joe
Biden’s
2020
election
victory,
amid
repeated
and
unfounded
allegations
of
widespread
election
fraud
and as
then-President
Donald
Trump
was
urging
his
supporters
to “stop
the
steal.”
The
certification
of the
election
results
was
disrupted
by the
pro-Trump
rioters,
who
injured
scores
of
police
officers
and
ransacked
Capitol
offices
as
lawmakers
were
evacuated
from the
House
floor.
In court
filings
related
to the
original
conspiracy
case,
prosecutors
alleged
that the
group
came to
Washington
at
Rhodes’s
urging.
Rhodes
began
discussing
plans to
keep
Trump in
the
White
House by
force as
early as
Nov. 9,
the
filings
state.
Seven
other
alleged
Oath
Keepers
members
or
associates
were
previously
arrested
in
connection
with the
Jan. 6
riot,
but they
were not
charged
in the
large
conspiracy
case.
Prosecutors
allege
that
before
and
during
the
riot,
Rhodes
exchanged
dozens
of
encrypted
messages,
phone
calls
and
other
communications
with
members
of the
Oath
Keepers
group
that
breached
the
Capitol.
Rhodes
has
accused
prosecutors
of
trying
to
manufacture
a
nonexistent
conspiracy.
In
interviews
with The
Post,
Rhodes
disputed
previous
government
allegations
regarding
his
encrypted
posts to
a group
that
included
regional
Oath
Keepers
leaders
from
several
states
at the
scene.
The
messages,
on the
Signal
message
app,
were an
attempt
to keep
the
group
members
“out of
trouble,”
he said.
But he
insisted
he had
not
committed
crimes.
“I don’t
do
illegal
activities.
I always
stay on
this
side of
the
line,”
he said.
“I know
where
the
lines
are, and
it
drives
them
crazy.
“So
they’re,
they’re
actively
hunting
me down,
they’ve
got the
DOJ
running
around
sending
the FBI
out to
investigate
us, Oath
Keepers,
and
they’re
questioning
all of
our
members
across
the
country
— even
guys
that
didn’t
go to
D.C. —
about
me, and
about
their
relationship
with me.
And the
focus is
on
trying
to build
a case
against
myself
and
other
Oath
Keepers
to bring
us all
in jail.
But some
people
aren’t
satisfied
unless
we’re
all in
jail.”
Rhodes
also
said he
has
grown
disillusioned
with
Trump,
accusing
the
former
president
of not
supporting
members
of the
Oath
Keepers
charged
in the
Jan. 6
investigation.
“All of
the
people
that are
being
unlawfully
detained
or
denied
bail,
they’re
being
abandoned
by
Trump.
He’s
done
nothing
for
them.
You
know, he
could
donate
money,
he
hasn’t
even
done
that. He
didn’t
pardon
anybody
while he
was
still in
office,
and then
when he
left, he
hasn’t
raised
money,”
Rhodes
said.
“... I
think he
has
abandoned
his
base,
because
he has
abandoned
the
people
who were
there to
protect
his
other
supporters.
So, yes,
I do
feel
abandoned
by him.”
Prosecutors
say the
Oath
Keepers,
a loose
network
of
groups
founded
in 2009
that
includes
some
self-styled
citizen
militias,
seeks to
recruit
current
or
former
members
of law
enforcement
and the
military,
promoting
an
apocalyptic
vision
of the
government
careening
toward
totalitarianism
and
societal
collapse.
Days
after
the
attack
on
Congress,
the
Justice
Department
announced
that it
was
considering
charging
some of
the
rioters
with
seditious
conspiracy
— a
rarely
filed
criminal
charge
for
those
who use
violence
to try
to
hinder
the
execution
of
federal
law.
In the
year
since
the
attack,
the
Justice
Department
has
charged
more
than 700
people.
The FBI
is
seeking
to
arrest
more
than 200
more.
But some
Democrats
and
lawyers
have
argued
that the
department
has been
too
cautious
in
pursuing
more-serious
charges,
including
against
individuals
who may
not have
been at
the
Capitol
but may
have
organized
or
incited
the
violence.
In a
speech
last
week,
Attorney
General
Merrick
Garland
urged
his
critics
to be
patient,
noting
that
federal
conspiracy
investigations
typically
start
with the
lesser
allegations
and work
their
way
toward
graver
charges.
Rachel
Weiner
contributed
to this
report.
This is
a
breaking
news
story.
Please
check
back for
updates.
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