Oath Keepers leader jailed on Capitol riot charges

WASHINGTON — The founder and leader of the farright Oath Keepers militia group remained in jail after his first court appearance Friday, a day after his arrest on charges he plotted with others to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s 2020 election victory.

The seditious conspiracy charges against Stewart Rhodes and 10 other Oath Keepers members or associates are the first to be levied in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. They’re also the first to be brought by the Justice Department in over a decade.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly Priest Johnson ordered Rhodes, 56, of Granbury, Texas, to be held in custody until a detention hearing next Thursday in the Dallas suburb of Plano.

After the hearing, Rhodes’ lawyers said he entered a not guilty plea, plans to fight the charges against him and should be released. Defense attorneys Phillip Linder and James Lee Bright said Rhodes has no criminal history, no passport and is not a flight risk.

An Arizona man who was charged in the same indictment as Rhodes and other Oath Keepers members also made his first court appearance on Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Fine ordered Edward Vallejo, 63, of Phoenix, to remain jailed until a detention hearing next Thursday.

Rhodes and Vallejo were arrested Thursday. The nine others charged in the seditious conspiracy indictment already had been indicted on charges related to the Capitol siege.

The indictment charging Rhodes and other Oath Keepers says they discussed trying to overturn the election results and preparing for a siege by purchasing weapons and setting up battle plans. On Jan. 6, several members wearing camouflage combat attire shouldered their way through the crowd and into the Capitol in a military-style stack formation, authorities say.

Rhodes did not enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6 but is accused of helping put the violence into motion.

Authorities have said Rhodes was part of an encrypted Signal chat with Oath Keepers from multiple states and it showed the group was “activating a plan to use force” on Jan. 6. On the afternoon of the 6th, authorities say Rhodes told the group over Signal: “All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They’ve had enough.”

Vallejo is accused of coordinating what federal authorities say were “quick reaction force” teams that the Oath Keepers stationed outside of Washington on standby with weapons that could be shuttled to group members and associates.

Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009.