Oath Keepers Leader Stewart Rhodes Arrested in Jan. 6 Inquiry

Stewart Rhodes, the person and laminitis of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was arrested connected Thursday and charged on with 10 others with seditious conspiracy implicit what prosecutors said was their wide-ranging crippled to tempest the Capitol connected Jan. 6 past twelvemonth and disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory.

The apprehension of Mr. Rhodes, 56, was a large improvement successful the sprawling probe of the Capitol attack. He and the different Oath Keepers are the archetypal to beryllium charged with sedition among the much than 700 radical accused truthful acold of taking portion successful the assault.

Mr. Rhodes was arrested soon earlier 1 p.m. astatine his location successful Granbury, Texas, his lawyer, Jonathon Moseley, said.

The Justice Department has brought a assortment of charges successful transportation with the Capitol attack; it has prosecuted astir 275 radical for obstructing Congress’s work to certify the 2020 statesmanlike ballot count, for example. But it had not antecedently brought a sedition charge, with the legal value and governmental overtones it carries astir an predetermination successful a highly polarized country.

The complaint of seditious conspiracy, which tin beryllium hard to prove, requires prosecutors to amusement that astatine slightest 2 radical agreed to usage unit to overthrow authorities authorization oregon hold the execution of a U.S. law. It carries a maximum of condemnation of 20 years successful prison.

The past clip national prosecutors brought a sedition lawsuit was successful 2010, erstwhile they accused members of a Michigan militia of plotting to provoke an equipped struggle with the government. They were yet acquitted.

Prosecutors said that opening lone days aft the 2020 election, Mr. Rhodes oversaw a seditious crippled “to reason the lawful transportation of statesmanlike powerfulness by force.” Some members of the Oath Keepers nether his bid broke into the Capitol successful a military-style enactment connected Jan. 6 and went successful hunt of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the indictment said. Others, it said, were stationed successful a edifice successful Alexandria, Va., arsenic an equipped “quick absorption force,” acceptable to unreserved into Washington if needed.

In summation to Mr. Rhodes, prosectors charged Edward Vallejo, 63, of Phoenix, for the archetypal clip successful transportation with Jan. 6. The 9 different militia members named successful the indictment had each antecedently been charged, though not with sedition. Mr. Vallejo was portion of the speedy absorption unit teams that the militia had deployed, which were equipped with firearms and different tactical instrumentality successful lawsuit Mr. Rhodes called upon them to enactment the plot, prosecutors said. The teams included Oath Keepers from North Carolina, Florida and Arizona.

Mr. Rhodes, a erstwhile Army paratrooper who went connected to gain a instrumentality grade astatine Yale, had been nether probe for his relation successful the riot since astatine slightest past outpouring when, against the proposal of his lawyer, helium sat down with F.B.I. agents for an interrogation successful Texas. He was astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6, communicating by cellphone and a chat app with members of his team, many of whom went into the building. But determination is nary grounds that helium entered the Capitol.

Over 48 pages, the caller indictment painted a elaborate representation of Mr. Rhodes’s activities starting lone days aft the 2020 election. Just 2 days aft Election Day, Mr. Rhodes told respective members of his radical to garbage to judge Mr. Biden’s victory, the indictment said.

“We aren’t getting done this without a civilian war,” helium wrote connected the encrypted chat app Signal. “Too precocious for that. Prepare your mind, body, spirit.”

One period later, aft plotting with underlings successful respective states, the indictment said, Mr. Rhodes told members of his radical connected different encrypted Signal transmission that they should usage unit to halt Mr. Biden from taking office. “It volition beryllium a bloody and hopeless fight,” helium wrote. “We are going to person a fight. That can’t beryllium avoided.”

Through their lawyers, members of the Oath Keepers who are already facing charges person said they converged connected Washington conscionable earlier Jan. 6 not to onslaught the Capitol, but alternatively arsenic portion of a information item hired to protect blimpish celebrities similar Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime state of erstwhile President Donald J. Trump.

In an interview with The New York Times past summer, Mr. Rhodes expressed vexation that respective members of his radical had “gone disconnected mission” by entering the Capitol connected Jan. 6, rapidly adding, “There were zero instructions from maine oregon enactment to bash so.”

But astatine slightest 4 Oath Keepers who were astatine the Capitol that time and are cooperating with the authorities person sworn successful tribunal papers that the radical intended to breach the gathering with the extremity of obstructing the last certification of the Electoral College vote.

Mr. Rhodes has besides attracted the attraction of the House prime committee investigating Jan. 6, which issued him a subpoena successful November. In a letter astatine the time, House investigators noted that Mr. Rhodes had taken portion successful respective events intended to question the integrity of the 2020 statesmanlike predetermination passim that autumn and winter.

On Election Day, the missive said, Mr. Rhodes said that an “honest” number of the votes could lone effect successful a triumph for Mr. Trump and called connected members of his radical to “stock up connected ammo” and hole for a “full-on warfare successful the streets.”

Key Figures successful the Jan. 6 Inquiry

With his distinctive achromatic oculus spot — the effect of a weapon mishap — Mr. Rhodes has been a fixture connected the acold close astir from the time successful 2009 that helium announced the instauration of the Oath Keepers astatine a rally successful Lexington, Mass., the tract of a celebrated Revolutionary War battle.

At the event, Mr. Rhodes laid retired an antigovernment level for the existent and erstwhile instrumentality enforcement and subject unit who joined his group, saying that his program was for members to disobey definite amerciable orders from officials and alternatively to uphold their oath to the Constitution.

During the Obama administration, the Oath Keepers repeatedly inserted themselves into salient nationalist conflicts, often playing the relation of heavy equipped vigilantes. In 2014, for instance, they turned up astatine a cattle ranch successful Nevada aft its owner, Cliven Bundy, engaged successful an equipped standoff with national onshore absorption officials. That aforesaid year, members of the radical went to Ferguson, Mo., on a self-appointed ngo to support section businesses from riots prompted by the decease of Michael Brown, a Black antheral who was changeable by the police.

After Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Rhodes and the Oath Keepers pivoted distant from their antigovernment views and appeared to clasp the caller tone of nationalism and suspicions of a deep-state conspiracy that had taken basal among immoderate of the president’s supporters. Like different far-right groups specified arsenic the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers besides opposed — often physically — the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted successful 2020 successful the aftermath of the execution of George Floyd by the constabulary successful Minneapolis.

According to the indictment, Mr. Rhodes became much superior astir stopping Mr. Biden from assuming bureau successful aboriginal January, the aforesaid period helium began spending thousands of dollars connected military-grade firearms, ammunition and different tactical gear. Prosecutors person not accused him of bringing immoderate weapons to Washington connected Jan. 6, but they said that Mr. Vallejo and different members of the equipped absorption unit extracurricular the metropolis discussed the anticipation of “armed conflict” and “guerrilla war.”

Mr. Rhodes seemed to relish the chaos astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6, prosecutors said. The indictment notes that soon aft 3 p.m. that day, a subordinate of his Signal radical chat sent him a connection saying that members of Congress had been “given state masks and are trying to get out.” Mr. Rhodes is said to person responded with a dismissive obscenity.

That evening, prosecutors said, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Vallejo and different Oath Keepers met astatine an Olive Garden edifice successful Vienna, Va., to “celebrate their onslaught connected the Capitol and sermon adjacent steps.”

“Thousands of ticked disconnected patriots spontaneously marched connected the Capitol,” Mr. Rhodes wrote that nighttime connected his Signal radical chat. “You ain’t seen thing yet.”