Rhodes, 56, leader of the Oath Keepers extremist militia, pleaded not guilty Friday to seditious conspiracy and is expected back in court next week for a hearing on whether he should remain detained pending trial.
Rhodes is not accused of entering the Capitol building on Jan. 6. But prosecutors say he organized a conspiracy to keep Joe Biden out of the White House using an armed force of militia volunteers, both before and after the violent siege at the Capitol. Wearing a T-shirt, jeans and boots, Rhodes answered a few brief questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly Priest Johnson before shuffling back out of the courtroom in leg and wrist chains.
The Anti-Defamation League called his Oath Keepers militia “one of the largest anti‐government extremist groups in the U.S.” He predicted his arrest during a March 2021 border appearance in Laredo for an event titled, “We the People For Border Security.” Rhodes was quoted at the event as saying he “may go to jail soon” for “made-up crimes.”
He was in Dallas in 2020 to protest COVID restrictions. And his Oath Keepers provided unauthorized security for Trump supporters when the former president spoke in Dallas in 2019.at the time that he was coordinating his volunteers, some of them licensed to carry weapons, to protect Trump supporters from far-left violent extremists outside American Airlines Center.Rhodes has also provided security for GOP operative Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, at political events.
There was “unconventional warfare” training. And training for “road blocks… convoy operations… hasty ambushes” and falling into formations. Another said he had traveled to Washington DC for a lengthy reconnaissance trip.A Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va., was chosen as the base of operations for the heavily-armed quick response teams that Rhodes arranged to prepare to supply arms to the insurgents at the Capitol, the indictment says.
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