Suspected Oath Keepers are charged in Jan. 6 plot
The Justice Department brought charges Friday against six people suspected of being members of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group, adding new defendants to a case that had accused the group of an organized plot to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The charges, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, accused Kelly Meggs, selfdescribed leader of the Oath Keepers’ Florida chapter, and his wife, Connie, of joining four other militia members, including a married couple from Ohio, in a “stack” of Oath Keepers who ascended a flight of stairs outside the Capitol and breached the building. The group of six, court papers say, worked with three Oath Keepers who were charged last month: Thomas E. Caldwell, Jessica M. Watkins and Donovan Crowl.
The new indictment against the nine Oath Keepers is the most significant evidence to date that far-right extremists worked in advance to try to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory Jan. 6 and to help former President Donald Trump stay in power.
In late December, prosecutors say, Kelly Meggs, 52, referred on Facebook to a tweet in which Trump predicted that a rally in Washington on Jan. 6 to protest the results of the election would be “wild.”
“He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying,” Meggs wrote in his Facebook post. “He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!! Gentlemen we are heading to DC.”
According to previous court papers, the Oath Keepers began working to undermine Biden’s win within a week of Election Day, setting up training sessions for “urban warfare” and “riot control” and discussing a plot to ferry heavy weapons into Washington across the Potomac River. Prosecutors say Watkins in particular was “awaiting direction” from Trump about how to deal with the election results as early as midNovember.
In the newly filed papers, prosecutors said another Florida Oath Keeper, Graydon Young, had arranged for himself and others to receive “firearms and combat training.”