Echoing previous records, the new indictment notes that on January 4, Mr. Rhodes issued a call to action on his organization’s website urging “all patriots” to “stand up in support of President Trump’s struggle to defeat enemies foreigners and domesticers who are attempting a coup. ”The repeated references in the files to Mr. Rhodes, a former soldier and a graduate of the Yale Law School, suggest that prosecutors may be trying to file a case against him as well.
According to prosecutors, the Oath Keepers began to conspire to overturn the election not long after the votes were cast in November. On November 9, prosecutors say, Watkins, a 38-year-old Ohio bar owner, sent a text message to several recruits saying they needed to be “in shape to fight” on the day of the inauguration. Shortly after, court documents say, she suggested to her recruits that they use the Zello chat app to communicate during “operations”.
When asked by a recruit the following week what 2021 might hold, Watkins admitted that Biden could actually become the president, prosecutors say. “If he is, our way of life as we know him is over,” she wrote. “Our Republic would be over. So it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights. “
In early December, court documents say that another person charged in the case, Graydon Young, 54, contacted the Florida section of the Oath Keepers seeking to become involved with the group while Crowl, a Virginia Navy veteran, participated in a training camp in North Carolina. By the end of the month, militia members had set eyes on the Trump event on January 6 in Washington and were organizing accommodations in the city and coordinating with other groups of Oath Keepers from North Carolina and Mississippi, prosecutors say.
On Christmas Day, court documents say, Meggs wrote a message on Facebook stating that guns were not allowed in Washington and suggesting that he could bring “clubs and gas masks, some batons” to the event. Days later, prosecutors say, he wrote online about a “QRF,” or Rapid Reaction Force, that could accompany the Oath Keepers to Washington. This echoed comments made by Caldwell, who also wrote messages about the creation of a team of armed militiamen stationed outside Washington who could run to the aid of city residents, prosecutors say.
On January 4, court documents say, the suspects started to head to Washington. Mr. Young traveled from North Carolina, staying at the Hilton Garden Inn with his sister, Laura Steele, another defendant in the case. Mr. Crowl, Mrs. Watkins and the couple, Bennie and Sandra Parker, all drove from Ohio. Caldwell, from Virginia, paid for a room for two at a Comfort Inn on the outskirts of Washington, prosecutors say. Mrs. Watkins booked her own room there, court documents say, as did the Parker.
The day before the attack, Mr. and Mrs. Meggs were photographed providing security at a rally outside the United States Supreme Court, where former Trump adviser Roger Stone spoke.