For Oath Keepers and founder, attack on Capitol was weeks in the making
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,” the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, wrote fellow members, according to court documents. “Too late for that. Prepare your mind. body. spirit.”
Four days later, when The Associated Press and other news outlets declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner, the documents say Mr. Rhodes told Oath Keepers to “refuse to accept it and march en-masse on the nation’s Capitol.”
The indictment last week of Mr. 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 Civil War-era statute reserved for only the most serious of political criminals.
But the documents also show how quickly Mr. Trump’s most fervent and dangerous supporters mobilized to subvert the election results through force and violence, even though there was no widespread election fraud and Trump’s Cabinet and local election officials said the vote had been free and fair.
Hundreds of people have been charged in the violent effort to stop the congressional certification of Mr. Biden’s victory. Many were animated by Mr. Trump’s speech at a rally near the White House, where he said: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
For Mr. Rhodes and others, there was no need for Mr. Trump’s words of encouragement. Action was already planned.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, 56, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. He and some friends decided they would form an organization around the perception of “imminent tyranny,” concerned about federal overreach and a unrecognized threats, like the government was planning to attack its own citizens. He recruited current and former military, police and first responders.
He has said there were about 40,000 Oath Keepers at its peak; one extremism expert estimates the group’s membership stands at about 3,000 nationally.
Members pledge to “fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,’” and to defend the Constitution, according to its website.
Their motto: “Not on our watch!”
The Oath Keepers engaged in confrontations with the government during Barack Obama’s presidency. The most notable was an armed standoff against the federal government at Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada.
Then Mr. Trump was elected in 2016. While Mr. Rhodes insisted the Oath Keepers were nonpartisan, they came to the nation’s capital in January 2017, when Mr. Trump took office, to protect peaceful “American patriots” from “radical leftists.”
When it looked like Mr. Trump was going to lose the 2020 presidential election to Mr. Biden, the Oath Keepers got to work, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 9, 2020, Mr. Rhodes instructed his followers during a call to go to Washington to let Mr. Trump know “that the people are behind him,” and he expressed hope that Mr. Trump would call up the militia to help stay in power, authorities say.
“It will be a bloody and desperate fight,” Mr. 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, Mr. 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. Mr. Rhodes is accused of spending $15,500 on firearms and related equipment including a shotgun, AR-15, mounts, triggers, scopes and magazines, prosecutors said.
“Everyone coming has their own technical equipment and knows how to use it,” wrote Edward Vallejo, who also was charged in the conspiracy.
Oath Keepers staged the guns in hotels just outside of the District of Columbia. Mr. Rhodes said they were “QRFs” —military-speak for quick reaction force, according to court papers.
On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Vallejo and others were on a podcast discussing the possibility of armed conflict. Members wore camouflaged combat attire and in helmets. They entered the Capitol with the rioters who stormed past police barriers and smashed windows, injuring dozens of officers and sending lawmakers running.
The indictment against Mr. Rhodes alleges Oath Keepers formed two teams, or “stacks,” a military term. The first stack split up inside the building to go after the House and Senate. The second stack confronted officers inside the Capitol Rotunda, the indictment said.