more than 400 people have now been charged in one of the most complex investigations the department
of justice has ever faced the january 6th attack on the capitol the fbi has called it
an act of domestic terrorism and one group has grabbed investigators attention for their role
the oath keepers the fbi describes them as an anti-government militia movement
among them current and former military and law enforcement
their name is a reference to the oath they took to defend the u.s constitution
but unlike most other militia groups we learned the oath keepers haven't been hiding they've been
armed and in plain sight broadcasting plans to mobilize the story will continue in a moment
if you were looking for a road map to january 6
they're storming the capitol now oh my god all you had to do was listen
okay guys we're on open channel here now these are the voices of far-right extremists
communicating with each other in real time from homes across america and on the ground
in washington godspeed and fair winds to us as some of them made their way to the capitol
trump's been trying to drain the swamp with a straw we just brought a shop back stop to steal
they were talking on a phone and computer app called zello it's unencrypted like a walkie-talkie
and has an international user base of around 150 million it's popular with truckers disaster relief
groups activists and extremists just be safe be alert and stay in groups anyone can listen to
zello and micah lowinger did lohanger a wnyc radio reporter started working with the online extremist
research group militia watch to understand how militia groups like to use zelo to recruit and
communicate leading up to january 6th we uncovered examples of militias saying things like revolution
or bust that they were using zello to plan their travel to washington dc that they were going to
have separate channels for people gathering intel and separate channels for boots on the ground
and they did on january 6 micah lowenger found an open stop the steel conversation
going on among 100 people on zillow and started recording it wasn't until a couple days later
that i started to realize how much planning must have gone into this event
and that's when i heard this mysterious woman narrating her march to the capitol and eventually
inside we have a good group we got about 30 40 of us we're sticking together and
sticking to the plan that mysterious woman is jessica watkins a 38 year old army veteran
she's the leader of a self-described ohio militia group and member of the oath keepers
we're moving on the capitol now i'll give you a boots on the ground update here and view
that's watkins with the goggles and here with nine other oath keepers in battle gear they move in a
stacked military formation methodically working through the crowd up the capitol steps towards
the doors just as the capitol doors are breached on zello others cheer her on you are executing
citizens arrests as she offers a play-by-play we are in the main dome right now we are rocking
it they're throwing grenades they're freaking shooting people with paintballs but we're in here
get it jess do your this is what we lived up for everything we trained for overran the
capitol we're in the capitol for weeks extremist watchdogs like the anti-defamation league national
news outlets and journalists like michael lowenger had been warning of possible violence on the sixth
if they had been paying attention to the whole network of far right groups online that were
extremely vocal and very public about what they wanted to happen i don't believe we would have
seen so many people break into the capitol police are doing nothing they're not even trying to stop
us at this point members told us at least 40 oath keepers were at the january 6 rally with some seen
here providing security to trump associate roger stone 13 people associated with the oath keepers
have been charged with federal crimes including jess watkins who has pled not guilty the zello
recordings are helping prosecutors make their case zillow has since deleted 2 000 of these extremist
channels that is just a small demonstration of capability that luckily didn't turn into a more
lethal threat javid ali is a former nsc senior director and was a counter-terrorism official at
the fbi under the trump administration i think what makes the oath keepers
unique and challenging beyond the fact that they're a formal group with chapters all over the
country is that a large percentage have tactical training and operational experience in either the
military or law enforcement that at least gives them a capability that a lot of other people
in this far-right space don't have the story of both keepers is very much the story of this man
i'm stewart rhodes i'm the founder of oath keepers in 2009 in lexington massachusetts
where the first shots were fired in the revolutionary war
stuart rhodes founded the oath keepers in response to the election of barack obama
hey it is for life roads enlisted in the army at 18 and was honorably discharged at 24. he went
on to graduate from yale law school and became a constitutionalist later warning america was
on the brink of government tyranny in 2010 he told bill o'reilly that it was up to current and former
members of the military and police who took an oath to defend the constitution to stop that
tyranny commander-in-chief is the president by our constitution if he issues an order are you telling
people not to obey the order if they don't like it if it's unconstitutional yes so each soldier
makes up his mind whether the order he's given is constitutional or not it's a heavy burden to me
but if you obey an unlawful order you can also be in trouble the group recruited thousands opening
up chapters across the country they formed a board of directors and ten orders to live by
elevating themselves to guardians of the republic and the constitution
vowing to protect against mass gun confiscation and a marxist invasion in 2014 they took their
fight to the nevada desert rhodes sent armed oath keepers to defend the rancher cliven bundy
who was in a 20-year battle with the federal government about public land use
and in 2015 months after the police shooting of michael brown in ferguson missouri
oathkeepers arrived with ar-15 style weapons saying they were there to protect businesses
but in 2016 the oath keepers believe they finally had an ally in the white house we will build
a great wall along the southern border when president trump warned of an invasion of
undocumented migrants the oath keepers called on members to patrol the border
and this fall when president trump warned of election fraud founder stewart rhodes appeared
on info wards conspiracist alex jones's talk show setting the stage for what was to come
on january 6. we have men already stationed outside dc as a nuclear option in case they
attempt to remove the president illegally we will step in and stop it it's either president
trump is encouraged and bolstered strengthened to do what he must do or we wind up in a bloody
fight we all know that the fight's coming but for some oath keepers the rhetoric was too much
former board members told us rhodes adopted a more violent militia-style ideology and it was
tearing apart the group chapters in virginia and north carolina broke ties with national
well before the six citing a departure from the original mission others distanced themselves after
the insurrection please rise for the invocation including the country's largest chapter in arizona
where jim arroyo is vice president while arroyo doesn't think the election was legitimate
he doesn't think anyone should have stormed the capitol i want to congratulate stuart rhodes and
his 10 militia buddies for winning first place in the ultimate dumbass contest because that's
what it was that goes against everything we've ever taught everything we believe in it was
pre-planned it was pre-staged 10 guys go and do something stupid and suddenly we're the devil
in september some arizona members showed up armed at a black lives matter protest in prescott
jim arroyo told us law enforcement coordinated with him to help keep the peace
the local sheriff's department told us they didn't ask for their help the critics of your
presence there say like these are just a bunch of guys who are wannabes and they can't wait to get
dressed up and play the role our guys are very experienced we have active duty law enforcement
in our organization that are helping to train us we can blend in with our law enforcement
in fact in a lot of cases our training is much more advanced because of our military backgrounds
there's nothing i love more than my ar-15 and my chainsaw and i don't know which one i like
more jim arroyo invited us to a meeting to see for ourselves the crowd mostly retirees meet
twice a month how warm that is to talk about how to survive disasters like forest fires
these things are great attacks on the power grid and civil war so that's why we talk about civil
unrest civil war it's not a joke this can happen and we need to be ready for it yesterday jim said
do you think we're in a civil war and everybody nodded their heads and said yes kathy york gary
harworth and mike rice are members do you all think that we are in the middle of a civil war
i think that we are we've got good versus evil right now going on in our country
who do you view as evil anybody that doesn't support our constitution and follow it they
they're trying to change it this country is divided right down the middle
and you're on one side or the other people have to realize that when things go crazy
things get a little chaosy around you you have to be able to take care of yourself defend yourself
protect your family those you love that's part of the constitution so on january 6 when you see
you know these people wearing that same emblem storm into the capitol what was your reaction
some of those people with those keepers could have been blm like it could have been a false
flag as far as i'm concerned you don't think they were oath keepers well we don't know we don't
know aren't there and they're stupid people it's stupid we don't do that that's not ruth keepers
how are you going to take an oath to defend the constitution and then try to disturb
a a session of congress during what's supposed to be one of our most precious political things you
know the transfer of power how are you going to do that i haven't had contact with stewart rhodes
he refuses to talk to us why is that you're the biggest oath keepers group why wouldn't you be
talking we have made multiple attempts through national my honest opinion is if there's any
honor left in this organization at the upper levels they will deal with it photos and phone
records place stuart roads on the capitol steps on january 6 communicating with those keepers
before they breached the doors but no charges have been brought against him rhodes declined to speak
with 60 minutes to tell his side of the story he did appear again last month on infowars this time
from his car saying he didn't order oath keepers to enter the capitol but defended the members who
are now in jail and criticized those who put them there they are criminalizing patriotism
one oath keeper has pled guilty and agreed to cooperate in the ongoing investigation as new
evidence suggests members stashed weapons at a nearby hotel as part of a quick reaction force
evidence a federal judge says is among the most troubling he has seen sources tell us prosecutors
are looking to build a case against stuart rhodes and possible separate charges against the national
organization