The leader and founder of the Oath Keepers, one of the main groups of the American far right, was arrested on Thursday for his role in the assault on the Capitol.
Stewart Rhodes, 56, and ten other members of this militia were indicted the day before for “sedition” by a grand jury, specifies the Ministry of Justice. This is the most serious charge to date against participants in the attack on the headquarters of Congress on January 6, 2021, when elected officials certified Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Nine of them had already been arrested and faced charges of “criminal association” to interfere with an official process or of violence, which involved a certain degree of coordination.
He was near the Capitol at the time of the attack
The head of “sedition”, liable to 20 years in prison, goes further. According to the indictment, Stewart Rhodes “associated” with some of his co-defendants “in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power”, in particular “by using violence”. “They organized transport from all over the country to Washington, equipped themselves with all kinds of weapons, dressed in combat gear and they were ready to respond to Rhodes’ calls to arms,” according to this document.
At the time of the attack, Stewart Rhodes, a former serviceman who founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, was near the Capitol, but it’s unclear whether he entered its compound. In addition to Stewart Rhodes, the police arrested Thursday, in Arizona, another member of this radical group, Edward Vallejo, 63 years old.