The details, many of which have not been publicly stated before, were revealed in a court filing by the government that includes a list of evidence prosecutors intend to use against the Oath Keepers at trial in September.
Prosecutors will try to prove that nine Oath Keepers accused of a seditious conspiracy — Stuart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Morschel, Thomas Caldwell and Edward Waiejo — were extensively groomed to violence and conspired to prevent Joe Biden from assuming the presidency.
All nine have pleaded not guilty and denied charges of preparing or participating in violence on January 6. CNN has reached out to their lawyers for comment.
The Justice Department has also secured at least seven cooperation agreements from members of the Oath Keepers, three of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy. A number of the associates are named in the new filing and had close contacts with the Oath Keepers heading into the trial.
Militia Training, Bombs and ‘Death List’
Among the new details in the government’s claims is a document with the words “LIST OF THE DEAD,” which the government claims it found at the home of Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell through a search warrant in the weeks after Jan. 6.
The handwritten list included the name of a 2020 Georgia election official and their family member, who, according to the new court filing, were both the subject of “baseless conspiracy theories that they engaged in voter fraud.”
In a comment to CNN, Caldwell said “the claim by the Department of Justice that I wanted to kill poll workers is 100% false and an abhorrent lie.”
The government also claims that at least three Oath Keepers chapters held training camps prior to January 6, 2021, focused on military tactics.
Florida members conducted “unconventional warfare” training, while the North Carolina branch conducted training focused on staging “hasty ambushes,” prosecutors said. Jessica Watkins, the leader of the Ohio branch, said the “recruits” must attend a “military-style basic training” class to be “combat-ready” by induction day.
Prosecutors previously said the group set up a so-called Quick Response Force, or QRF, outside Washington, D.C., stocked with firearms and a month’s worth of food. But prosecutors now allege that at least one Oath Keeper transported explosives, including military grenades, to the QRF.
The court document also alleges that the Oath Keepers created a similar QRF outside of DC for the November 2020 “Million MAGA March,” although no weapons were ever used at the march. According to prosecutors, at least five of the affidavits were present.
After the attack
Through its investigation into the group, the government says it seized two illegal short-barreled firearms, grenades and discovered bomb-making recipes while executing search warrants at the homes of several oath keepers. Another member, according to the filing, tried to get someone to make several rifles before Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
According to the government, on the evening of Jan. 6, Rhodes became suspicious that law enforcement wanted to arrest him, so he fled a restaurant and “took a number of steps to avoid detection” — dropping his phone and “parting with firearms and related thousands of dollars worth of equipment in four vehicles.”
According to prosecutors, Rhodes asked other Oath Keepers to join him in Texas after the events of Jan. 6 and suggested that members of the group buy recording phones and start wearing disguises. He also bought thousands of dollars worth of firearms parts, court documents said.
Rhodes once handed another member of the group an AR-15 rifle while they were together in a vehicle, “explaining that he did not intend to be captured alive by law enforcement,” according to the government.
Philip Linder, Rhodes’ attorney, said Rhodes was not aware of any plans for violence and did not participate in the violence at the Capitol.
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