FOR OATH KEEPERS, JAN. 6 WEEKS IN THE MAKING
Documents show planning began days after election
WILMINGTON, Del.
Two days after the election on Nov. 3, 2020, the Oath Keepers were already convinced that victory had been stolen from President Donald Trump and members of the far-right militia group were making plans to march on the U.S. Capitol.
“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war,” leader Stewart Rhodes wrote fellow members, according to court documents. “Too late for that. Prepare your mind. body. spirit.”
Four days after the vote, when The Associated Press and other news outlets declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner, the documents say Rhodes told Oath Keepers to “refuse to accept it and march en-masse on the nation’s Capitol.”
The indictment last week of Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and 10 other members or associates was stunning in part because federal prosecutors, after a year of investigating the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, charged them with seditious conspiracy, a rarely used Civil Warera statute.
Hundreds of people have been charged in the violent effort to stop the congressional certification of Biden’s victory. Many were animated by Trump’s speech at a rally near the White House, just before the riot, where he said: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
But for Rhodes and others, there was no need for Trump’s words of encouragement. Action was already planned.
When it looked like Trump was going to lose the 2020 presidential election to Biden, the Oath Keepers got to work, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 9, 2020, Rhodes instructed his followers during a GoToMeeting call to go to Washington to let Trump know “that the people are behind him,” and he expressed hope that Trump would call up the militia to help stay in power, authorities say.
“It will be a bloody and desperate fight,” Rhodes warned. “We are going to have a fight. That can’t be avoided.”
The Oath Keepers worked as if they were going to war, discussing weapons and training. Days before the attack on the Capitol, one defendant suggested in a text message getting a boat to ferry weapons across the Potomac River to their “waiting arms,” prosecutors say.
On Dec. 14, 2020, as the electors in the states cast their votes, Rhodes published a letter on the Oath Keepers’ website “advocating for the use of force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power,” according to the documents.
As that transition in Washington drew close, Oath Keepers spoke of an arsenal they would keep just a few minutes away and grab if needed. Rhodes is accused of spending $15,500 on firearms and related equipment, including a shotgun, AR-15, mounts, triggers, scopes and magazines, prosecutors said.
On the morning of Jan. 6, 2020, members turned up in camouflaged combat attire and helmets. They entered the Capitol with the large crowds of rioters who stormed past police barriers and smashed windows, injuring dozens of officers and sending lawmakers running.
The indictment against Rhodes alleges Oath Keepers formed two teams, or “stacks,” that went inside. The first stack split up to separately go after the House and Senate. The second stack confronted officers inside the Capitol Rotunda, the indictment said.
An Oath Keeper was the first defendant to plead guilty in the investigation. Jon Ryan Schaffer also agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation, and the Justice Department has promised to consider putting him in the witness security program.
Other cracks in the group are showing. Before his arrest, Rhodes sought to distance himself from those who’ve been arrested, insisting the members went rogue and there was never a plan to enter the Capitol.
More than a dozen of his members were arrested on conspiracy charges, and Rhodes was referred to in their indictments as “Person One.”
Rhodes faced a judge on Friday and was ordered to be held in custody. After the hearing, his lawyers said he entered a not guilty plea and plans to fight the charges.