The founder of the militia group Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, was once a promising Yale Law School graduate.
Rhodes, 57, will be back in court Tuesday, but not as a lawyer. He and four others tied to the Oath Keepers are being tried on charges of seditious conspiracy, the most serious criminal allegation leveled by the Justice Department in its far-reaching prosecution of rioters who attacked the Capitol.
“He was going to achieve something amazing," Adams said."He didn’t know what it was, but he was going to achieve something incredible and earth shattering." He had a sense of adventure that was attractive to a young woman brought up in a middle-class, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints family. A few months after the couple started dating, Rhodes accidentally dropped a gun and shot out his eye. He now wears an eye patch.
Rhodes’ lawyer declined to make him available for an interview and Rhodes declined to answer a list of questions sent by The Associated Press. He formally launched the Oath Keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2009, where the first shot in the American Revolution was fired. Rhodes was a compelling speaker and especially in the early years framed the group as “just a pro-Constitution group made up of patriots,” said Sam Jackson, author of the book “Oath Keepers” about the group.
A membership fee was a requirement to access the website, where people could join discussion forums, read Rhodes' writing and hear pitches to join militaristic trainings. Members willing to go armed to a standoff numbered in the low dozens, though, said Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the group.
As the Oath Keepers escalated their public profile and confrontations with the government, Rhodes was leaving behind some of those he once championed. Jennifer Esposito hired him as her lawyer after the group's early outing in Quartzsite, but he missed a hearing in her case because he was at the Bundy Ranch standoff. A judge kicked Rhodes off the case, and no lawyer would represent her.
Rhodes wanted Oath Keepers to go to Cleveland to provide security for Trump — then set to be the GOP presidential nominee — at the 2016 Republican National Convention, even though no one had asked the group for protection, said Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who served on the Oath Keepers’ board for about six years.
In 2018, Rhodes went too far for Jim Arroyo, a former Army Ranger who serves as president of an Oath Keepers chapter in Yavapai County, Arizona. He rejected a push to send group members to the U.S.-Mexico border for an armed operation to support the U.S. Border Patrol.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
From Yale to jail: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes' pathThe founder of the militia group Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, was once a promising Yale Law School graduate.
Read more »
From Yale to jail: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes' pathThe founder of the Oath Keepers militia group is heading to trial for some of the most serious charges filed in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here's a look at how Stewart Rhodes went from Yale Law School to sitting in a jail cell.
Read more »
‘Fighting fit’: Trial to show Oath Keepers’ road to Jan. 6Court documents in the case against Stewart Rhodes and four co-defendants — whose trial opens Tuesday with jury selection in Washington’s federal court — paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s victory that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so.
Read more »
'Fighting fit': Trial to show Oath Keepers' road to Jan. 6An upcoming trial aims to show Jan. 6 wasn't a spur-of-the-moment protest for the Oath Keepers but part of a plot to stop the transfer of presidential power.
Read more »
'Fighting fit': Trial to show Oath Keepers' road to Jan. 6An upcoming trial aims to show Jan. 6 wasn't a spur-of-the-moment protest for the Oath Keepers but part of a plot to stop the transfer of presidential power.
Read more »
‘Fighting Fit': Trial to Show Oath Keepers' Road to Jan. 6It’s been a long road to the upcoming Capitol riot trial of the the leader of the extremist group Oath Keepers. But the prosecution’s case against Stewart Rhodes covers a lot more than just the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
Read more »