Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer was arrested on Sunday (January 17) after becoming authorities after his appearance on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for his participation in the Capitol riot. A photo of Schaffer, taken inside the Capitol, captured him wearing an “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member” cap. CNN now reports that Thomas Caldwell, leader of the far-right anti-government group, was tasked with planning and coordinating part of the January 6 attack.
The Oath Keepers is an extremist and conspiratorial group, made up of former law enforcement officers and military veterans, who claim to be defending the United States Constitution. Court documents indicate that the Justice Department accused Caldwell, 65, of Virginia, in part, of conspiracy.
“Records obtained from Facebook indicate that Caldwell was involved in planning and coordinating the United States Capitol violation on January 6, in which [separately charges plaintiff] Watkins, Crowl and other members of the Oath Keeper militia participated, “says part of the process.
It is not known whether Schaffer was among the supposed group of eight to 10 protesters, all using Oath Keepers paraphernalia, who moved “in an organized and practiced manner and forced their way to the front of the crowd gathered around a Capitol door. of the United States, “by CNN.
Schaffer, who currently faces six federal charges and was seen using “bear spray” – a capsaicin-based deterrent aerosol designed to use as a weapon against hostile or aggressive bears – while on Capitol Hill. The FBI alleges that Schaffer was involved in a verbal altercation with police officers and was seen among a group of hooligans who had deployed aerosol deterrent agents against Capitol police officers.
He surrendered to the Hamilton County police on Sunday afternoon (January 17) in his home state of Indiana. Local news channel Wish-TV reported most recently that the founder of Iced Earth was transferred to Marion County Jail, where he will remain for the next week, pending a presentation before a U.S. magistrate. There is a possibility that Schaffer will be released on bail after the hearing.
Earlier today (January 19), it was reported that Schaffer bands – Iced Earth and Demons & Wizards – were no longer listed on the page of Century Media Records, the home label for both groups.
Repeated requests for comment from Century Media as this story continues to develop have not been answered.
Before the siege of the United States Capitol, Schaffer traveled to Washington DC to participate in a pro-Trump demonstration on November 15, just over a week after the presidential race was called for President-elect Joe Biden. Schaffer spoke with German news media Die Welt while on the rally. He was asked about the purpose of his presence and his thoughts on the potential for violence.
It is important to note that Schaffer’s rhetoric aligns with some of the conspiratorial claims made by the Oath Keepers group, as detailed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The complete transcript of the posted interview (via Blabbermouth) was reproduced in full below.
My name is Jon Schaffer. I’m from Indiana.
A group of bandits and criminals kidnapped this country a long time ago. Now they are taking a big step, and that is not going to happen. That’s right. These are globalists. These are the scum of the earth. These are the criminals who are behind all the fraudulent cash fees, are behind all wars, are behind all the shit, are behind divide-and-conquer tactics, behind racial division. It’s all nonsense, everything rubbish.
People need to wake up and leave the matrix, because they are falling. They made the move. They are messing with the wrong people here – believe me. And we needed it to be opened that way – open fraud, open theft. Because now we see you, and you will fall. Mark my words.
If anyone wants to bring violence, I think many of us here are ready for that. We don’t want that, but if they do, we’ll respond to that – trust me.
I think that goes beyond President Trump. President Trump is a populist. He’s not the typical Republican. It is not the establishment. He is not going to start wars everywhere, as they do. Which is funny – where are all the Democrats who went against the war?
There is so much hatred for Trump, it is just ridiculous. He’s been dealing with a criminal mafia that’s been in the shadows ruling the world, frankly, for a long time. They want to destroy our entire sovereignty and create a global government.
We are not having this. We can still do business together, countries can still be at peace, but we are not going to merge into some globalist communist system. This will not happen. There will be a lot of blood spilled, if any – trust me.
The American people will not accept this bullshit – once they understand what is really going on. So, this is where we are. Nobody wants that, but they are pushing us to a point where we have no choice.