After being indicted for seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol insurgency, Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the hardline Oath Keepers group, reportedly received “white glove treatment” from FBI officers after his arrest on Thursday.
Rhodes was on the phone with an attorney, Jonathan Moseley, at the time of his arrest.
Bensinger said he spoke with Moseley.
When the FBI contacted on the other line, Rhodes and Moseley were reportedly negotiating whether the Oath Keepers founder would face questions from the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurgency.
“Unlike typical FBI arrests, which tend to happen at 6 a.m. and often involve battering rams and dogs, Rhodes appeared to get the white glove treatment,” Bensinger reported. “He was asked politely to come outside and given time to dress, Moseley said.”
About two-thirds of Oath Keepers members “have a background in the military or law enforcement,” according to a 2020 piece in The Atlantic.
When the FBI called, Rhodes “clicked over the line then added him to the call with the FBI special agent and that he helped negotiate the surrender while Rhodes got ready.”
While Moseley does not represent Rhodes, he does represent Kelly Meggs, another Oath Keeper involved in the insurgency.
“The FBI called at roughly 11:40 a.m. CT, while Moseley was discussing Rhodes’ options w/ the Select Committee, before which he was due to appear on Feb. 2,” Bensinger reported. “Moseley noted that the FBI seized many of the documents Congress subpoenaed. ‘So that complicates things!’ he added.”
According to Jamie Landers of the Dallas Morning News, FBI investigators examined the residence where Rhodes was residing in Little Elm, a Dallas suburb.
“FBI agents were seen searching the garage, the black Suburban in the driveway and taking boxes of evidence out of the house,” Landers reported. “It is unclear why Rhodes, who is from Granbury, was staying here. The homeowners and their dogs are still inside but haven’t answered the door. Multiple Dallas police officers arrived just now. They tried to enter the house again, but no one responded.”
As we had previously reported, some of Donald Trump’s right-wing associates allegedly asked the Oath Keepers to stand guard for them, and the militia’s founder, if willing to flip on them, might give the committee damning evidence.
Stewart Rhodes, a co-founder of Oath Keepers, was scheduled to testify before a House select committee this week, but his interview was postponed for unspecified reasons. It’s unclear whether he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and even if he does, his testimony could be difficult to untangle.
“Investigators will have to wade through a sea of conspiracies and anti-government paranoia to mine the facts from Rhodes’ testimony,” the website reported. “Compounding that task, in the year since the attack a number of fractures have appeared between different Jan. 6 factions, and the shifting allegiances have given a slew of already unreliable narrators incentive to turn on each other.”
Rhodes, who has not been charged in the investigation, could try to pin the uprising on Trump allies like Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, both of whom were convicted of lying to investigators, and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander, who testified before the committee last month, or even rival militia 1st Amendment Praetorian, which has ties to all three men.
“They were directing them, asking them to come provide security,” said Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle. “All paths lead to Flynn … he’s the one who was the puppet handler for everything. He was moving all the pieces.”
Rhodes has spoken with federal officials probing the Oath Keepers’ role in the insurgency at least once, but congressional investigators say they are careful not to coordinate measures with the Justice Department to avoid the impression of partisanship.
