The founder of Oath Keepers is accused of organizing a January 6 riot along with ten others
- Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of Oath Keepers, was charged with seditious conspiracy arising out of the Capitol riots on January 6
- Rhodes and more than a dozen members and allies of far-right militia are suspected of planning and carrying out an attack to prevent Biden’s certification.
- This is the largest conspiracy case ever brought by federal prosecutors on January 6.
- Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper, started Oath Keepers in 2009
The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy to allegedly organize the January 6 attack on the US. capital,
Anti-government group leader Stewart Rhodes was taken into custody by federal authorities on Thursday after a grand jury returned an indictment against him and a core group of sworn guard members, accusing them of planning and stopping the rebellion. Put it. President’s certification Joe Bidenof electoral victory.
Rhodes is the highest-ranking member of an extremist group to be arrested in the deadly siege and is the first time the Justice Department has been charged with a seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riots.
Stewart Rhodes, leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers group, was arrested on Thursday on federal charges of sedition conspiracy related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
More than a dozen members and associates of the oath-taking have been indicted, making this the largest conspiracy case ever brought up on the riots.
Rhodes is accused, along with more than a dozen other members and aides of the Oath Keepers, which officials say came to Washington with the intention of preventing lawmakers from declaring Biden the winner.
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol building on January 6, but is accused of helping to trigger violence that obstructed the vote’s authentication.
The Oath Keepers case is the largest conspiracy case federal officials have uncovered on January 6, when thousands of pro-Trump rioters broke police barriers and smashed windows, wounding dozens of officers and sending lawmakers on the run. .
Federal officials argue that Rhodes and his fellow President came to Washington DC with the intention of preventing lawmakers from attesting to the election victory of Joe Biden.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper, started Oath Keepers in 2009, and the group has grown to become one of the largest anti-government militias in the country.
In 2014, members of the Oath Keeper became involved in an armed standoff between federal officials and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy over grazing rights on government land.
Later that year and in 2015, members patrolled the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, amid protests over the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. They wore camouflage body armor and openly carried rifles.
,