As recently as last week, founding member Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers offered to appear before the House Select Committee looking into the Capitol attack on January 6, under oath. It was only on national television that Rhodes, the far-right ideologue behind the Oath Keepers, agreed to testify.
In the words of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Oath Keepers is a “fiercely anti-government, militaristic group that claims membership over 30,000 law enforcement officers, soldiers, and military veterans.” However, the center says that this number is extremely unlikely to be accurate.
The Oath Keepers are described by the Department of Justice as “a significant but loosely structured collection of individuals, some of whom are linked with militias,” and they “explicitly focus on recruiting current and former military, police enforcement, and first-responder personnel.”
According to the SPLC, this group advocates “their form of vigilante justice by providing voluntary and often unlawful security during tense events in America.
Oath Keepers and Rhodes supported Trump while he was in the White House. It was his friend Alex Jones, whom the SPLC describes as “the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America,” who encouraged Rhodes to become “increasingly conspiratorial.”
To prove his beliefs about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Rhodes rallied his supporters to take part in the U.S. Capitol revolt on January 6, 2021.
A seditious conspiracy charge has been filed against Rhodes, along with 11 other people, according to the Department of Justice, in connection with an uprising that took place on the nation’s capital’s steps on January 6.
Team Crazy and the likes of Stewart Rhodes deserve our contempt. They plotted to bring the democracy down. But in the drama of our narrow escape, they are the supporting actors.https://t.co/vELO5LrpHs
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) July 13, 2022
Allegedly, Rhodes and his co-defendants conspired to resist the transition of power between President Trump and President Biden by force, according to the indictment. Rhodes has entered a not guilty plea and is currently being held in a jail in the Washington, D.C. area before his upcoming trial later this year.
In the military, Rhodes served as a paratrooper. The SPLC views the Oath Keepers to be a “militia movement.” Injured in a parachuting accident at night, he was given an honorable discharge, according to the SPLC.
He then attended Yale Law School and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Before working for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who campaigned for president as a Republican and a Libertarian, he worked in a variety of positions, including as an intern supervisor for the congressman.
Oath Keepers was founded in 2009 by Rhodes, who abandoned political politics and enlisted the help of military and law enforcement personnel both active and retired.
Frequent media appearances by Rhodes and the Oath Keepers, including those with Alex Jones, have helped spread their message.
Rhodes’ recent actions have shown the danger of his conspiracy-inflamed convictions as the voice for Oath Keepers, according to SPLC.
Linder said earlier this month that Rhodes intended to testify under oath but “he wants it to be part of a public hearing, similar to the prior committee hearings,” he added. Both Rhodes and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon have offered to testify, but committee aides would discuss it.
Jason Van Tatenhove, the former national communications director for the Oath Keepers, was one of the witnesses who appeared before the House Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday.
Stephen Ayres, an Ohio resident who was part of the Trump supporters who gathered near the Capitol near the Senate, was another eyewitness. Last month, he pled guilty to a disorderly conduct charge.
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