Former Oath Keeper Testifies That Group Wanted ‘Armed Revolution’ On Jan. 6

A former spokesperson for the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers testified earlier than the Jan. 6 Home choose committee on Tuesday that the group is “harmful” and “violent” and that its chief, Stewart Rhodes, felt emboldened to guide an “armed revolution” on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I spent a number of years with the Oath Keepers, and I can inform you that they could not wish to name themselves a ‘militia,’ however they’re,” mentioned Jason Van Tatenhove, a former nationwide spokesperson for the Oath Keepers. “They’re a violent militia.”

Tuesday’s listening to largely targeted on former President Donald Trump’s shut ties to right-wing extremist teams just like the Oath Keepers, which performed a significant function within the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) requested Van Tatenhove particularly about Rhodes’ rhetoric within the weeks main as much as the Capitol riot.

“Stewart Rhodes implored President Trump to invoke the Revolt Act, the 1807 legislation that enables the president to name up militias to place down a rebel in opposition to the US, and I wish to get your ideas about this within the context of your prior relationship with Rhodes,” Raskin mentioned. “I perceive that you simply had conversations with Rhodes concerning the Revolt Act. Why was he so fixated on that, and what did he suppose it could allow the Oath Keepers to do?”

Van Tatenhove replied that Rhodes needed Trump to enact the Revolt Act as a result of it could’ve given the Oath Keepers “legitimacy” and a “path ahead” and would’ve helped Trump keep in energy.

He additionally emphasised that Individuals wanted to know how excessive the Oath Keepers are.

“I believe we have to stop mincing phrases and simply discuss truths and what it was going to be was an armed revolution,” Van Tatenhove mentioned. “I imply, individuals died that day. Legislation enforcement officers died that day. There was a gallows arrange in entrance of the Capitol. This might have been a spark that began a brand new civil conflict, and nobody would have gained there. That may have been good for nobody.”

“All I can do is thank the gods that issues didn’t go any worse that day,” he mentioned.

Van Tatenhove’s testimony got here amid a presentation by the Home choose committee demonstrating the Trump administration’s intensive ties to the Oath Keepers. The group’s members have served as safety for Trump adviser Roger Stone, and Rhodes was in an encrypted chat group with Stone and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser, within the days earlier than the Capitol assault. (Trump pardoned Flynn and Stone, who have been main gamers in his effort to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, earlier than he left workplace.)

Van Tatenhove mentioned that “the truth that the president was speaking, whether or not straight or not directly messaging” with Rhodes earlier than the rebel, “type of gave him the nod.”

Rhodes and 10 different Oath Keepers members have been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy for allegedly plotting violence on Jan. 6 to cease Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral Faculty victory.

Federal investigators say Rhodes tried to speak with Trump through an middleman as rioters have been storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. (The title of the middleman is unknown.)

Van Tatenhove appeared earlier than the committee carrying a jean jacket pulled over a black T-shirt for the band The Descendants. He defined that he first got here into contact with the Oath Keepers in 2014 as an “unbiased journalist,” when he went to report on a collection of armed standoffs between far-right militia teams and the federal authorities throughout the Western U.S.

After growing a relationship with the Oath Keepers, he was provided a job working the group’s web site and appearing as its spokesperson, which he accepted.

Quickly after, Van Tatenhove recalled, Rhodes gave him an alarming task.

“You might keep in mind again to the battle within the Center East the place our personal army created a deck of playing cards, which was a who’s-who of the important thing gamers on the opposite facet that they needed to take out,” he testified, referring to the U.S. army’s checklist of alleged terrorists to kill in Iraq and Afghanistan. “And Stewart [Rhodes] was very intrigued by that notion, and influenced by it, and he needed me to create a deck of playing cards that would come with completely different politicians, judges, together with Hillary Clinton because the Queen of Hearts.”

Van Tatenhove mentioned he declined to do the task. He mentioned he grew additional disillusioned with the group as he noticed it overtly embrace white nationalism and “straight-up racists.” The breaking level got here in a Montana grocery retailer, he recalled, when he heard Oath Keepers denying that the Holocaust occurred. He says he left the group a short while later.

When requested to explain the Oath Keepers’ imaginative and prescient for America, Van Tatenhove replied that it doesn’t embody the “rule of legislation… it contains violence.”

“It contains making an attempt to get their means by way of lies, by way of deceit, by way of intimidation and thru the perpetration of violence,” he mentioned.

At one level in the course of the listening to, Raskin famous that the Division of Justice has proof that the Oath Keepers introduced firearms, tactical gear and explosives to Washington, D.C., forward of the Jan. 6 assault.

Van Tatenhove responded that “there was at all times the push for army coaching, together with there have been programs in that neighborhood that went over explosives coaching” within the Oath Keepers.

“I believe we’ve gotten exceedingly fortunate that extra bloodshed didn’t occur as a result of the potential has been there from the beginning,” he instructed the committee.

Van Tatenhove ended his testimony by saying he’s scared for the way forward for America.

“I do worry for this subsequent election cycle as a result of who is aware of what that may carry if a president that’s keen… to whip up his followers utilizing lies and deceit and snake oil, whatever the human affect — what else is he going to do if he will get elected once more?” he mentioned. “All bets are off at that time, and that’s a scary notion.”

“I’ve three daughters,” he added. “I’ve a granddaughter, and I worry for the world that they are going to inherit if we don’t begin holding these individuals to account.”