Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, at the Capitol on Wednesday. While he was not seen entering the Capitol, he could be seen talking with his militia followers throughout the day. Stewart Rhodes, a former soldier and Yale law school graduate, who founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 and built it into a nationwide network, was seen on video standing outside the Capitol building. Footage from later in the day shows Oath Keepers dragging a wounded comrade out of the building.

Members of the group joined the protesters and insurrectionists flooding into the Capitol. The eight men, whose movements were captured on video, were identified by ProPublica and FRONTLINE as members of the Oath Keepers, a long-standing militia group that has pledged to ignite a civil war on behalf of Trump. More arrests are expected.Īs the crowds ringing the Capitol swelled on Wednesday, a small group of men clad in body armor shuffled toward the doors at the center of the building’s east-facing facade. They have seized pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails and arrested at least six people on illegal firearms charges, including one Maryland man who was captured in the visitors’ center of the Capitol. So far, police have arrested more than 80 people in connection with the attack, including at least one Proud Boy, Nick Ochs. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION.” One prominent Proud Boys account encouraged rioters as the chaos was unfolding: “Hold your ground!!!… DO NOT GO HOME. Tweet from men who confirmed membership in the Proud Boys posed for a photo the night before the attack.īut since the incident, Proud Boys social media channels have flaunted their direct role in the attack and looting of the Capitol. Few participants involved in the Capitol siege were seen wearing Proud Boys colors or logos. The four men posed for a photo and confirmed their membership in the group. A journalist working with ProPublica and FRONTLINE encountered members of the Proud Boys in dark clothes walking through Washington on the night before the attack. The Police Weren’t Ready.īut it appears that Tarrio’s followers heeded his advice. Read more: Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. A judge barred him from entering the city while he awaits trial. Two days before members of the House and Senate gathered to certify the Electoral College results, Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department arrested Tarrio and charged him with possessing high-capacity firearm magazines and destruction of property over the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner last month. Tarrio does not appear to have been present during the insurrection. And who knows….we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion.” We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams. “We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. “The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist…,” Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the group’s president, wrote in a late-December post on Parler, a social media platform that has become popular with right-wing activists and conservatives. Members of the ultranationalist street gang known as the Proud Boys were easy to spot at the protests that flared across the United States throughout 2020, often in the middle of a brawl, typically clad in black and yellow outfits.īut in December, as the group’s leaders planned to flood Washington to oppose the certification of the Electoral College vote this week for President-elect Joe Biden, they decided to do something different. This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes an upcoming documentary.

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