Oath Keepers militia leader tried to ask Trump to allow group to forcibly stop transfer of power, says DOJ

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Stewart Rhodes, the leader of one of the largest extremist groups in the United States, allegedly tried to ask Donald Trump through an intermediary to allow his militia group to “forcibly oppose the transfer of power” on 6 January 2021.

The Department of Justice made these allegations in a court submission against William Todd Wilson, another Oath Keepers member accused of trying to prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power by force last year.

This intermediary, not named in the document, denied Mr Rhodes’s request of speaking directly with Mr Trump, said the justice department.

Mr Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was arrested on 13 January, just over a year after the attacks and stands accused of seditious conspiracy arising out of the insurrection of the US capitol on 6 January last year.

He made this phone call from inside a private suite in Phoenix hotel after the militia group left the Capitol grounds, following the insurrection on 6 January.

“Wilson heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power,” said the document. “This individual denied Rhodes’s request to speak directly with President Trump. After the call ended, Rhodes stated to the group, ‘I just want to fight’”.

Mr Rhodes and Mr Wilson began conspiring to reject the “presidential election result” in early November, said the “statement of offence”.

They allegedly hatched a plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory “by deploying force to prevent, hinder and delay the execution of the laws of the United States” governing the process.

“Wilson, Rhodes, and other Oath Keepers leaders traveled together in the same car from their hotel in Virginia to Washington DC,” on the morning of 6 January, submitted the justice department.

“Wilson stored his firearms, ammunition, and combat gear in the hotel room, left his pepper spray and large stick in a co-conspirator’s car parked nearby, and carried a pocket knife with gun.

“Wilson was prepared to retrieve his weapons for use in Washington, DC, if called upon to do so,” it added.

Mr Wilson, 44, pleaded guilty to a seditious conspiracy charge stemming from the 6 January Capitol riots, becoming the third Oath Keeper to do so.

Last Friday, Brian Ulrich, a Georgia man affiliated with the group pleaded guilty to the same charge, while Joshua James of Alabama was the first Oath Keepers member to plead guilty in March.

Meanwhile, Rhodes along with eight others, are expected to go to trial after they pleaded not guilty.

So far, more than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the 6 January Capitol riot. Of them, over 270 have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, while more than 160 have been sentenced.