Oath Keepers Leader Arrested, Charged In Jan. 6 Conspiracy

WASHINGTON, DC — Federal authorities on Thursday indicted and arrested Stewart Rhodes, leader and founder of the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers, for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Rhodes' arrested was reported by multiple sources including The Associated Press and The Washington Post.

Rhodes was charged with seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack, The AP reported.

Rhodes is the highest-ranking member of an extremist group to be arrested in the attack. It's also the first time the Justice Department has brought a seditious conspiracy charge against someone accused of attacking the Capitol.

Rhodes is charged along with more than a dozen other members and associates of the Oath Keepers, who authorities say came to Washington intent on stopping the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

Rhodes did not enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6 but is accused of helping to orchestrate the violence that disrupted the certification of the vote.

According to the indictment against Rhodes, Oath Keepers allegedly formed two teams, or “stacks,” that entered the Capitol. The first “stack” split up inside the building to separately go after the House and Senate. The second “stack” confronted officers inside the Capitol Rotunda, the indictment said.

Outside Washington, the indictment alleges, the Oath Keepers had stationed two “quick reaction forces” that had guns “in support of their plot to stop the lawful transfer of power.”

Rhodes joined the Army after high school where he became a paratrooper, receiving an honorable discharge after he was injured in a night parachuting accident, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is also a graduate of Yale Law School.

Rhodes currently lives in Granbury, Texas.

The Oath Keepers case is the largest conspiracy case federal authorities have brought so far over Jan. 6, when thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed past police barriers and smashed windows, injuring dozens of officers.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.