Collaboration between Oath Keepers and Proud Boys on Jan. 6 could actually have been about an intense rivalry

The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 has probed the two militia groups who were coordinating efforts for the siege on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election of President Joe Biden.

CBS News noted that information and interviews indicate that the coordination between the two groups appears to be more about an intense rivalry.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and infamous Proud Boys member Enrique Tarrio met in a parking garage near the Phoenix Park Hotel, just blocks from the U.S. Capitol, the day before the Jan. 6 insurrection. The moment was captured by a documentary film crew doing a piece on the Proud Boys. The FBI began its own probe into the meeting, obtaining the footage in Feb. 2022.

"There was an animus between Rhodes and Tarrio," said filmmaker Nick Quested about the meeting. He met with the Jan. 6 committee last month to reveal what he witnessed. "They were not on the same team. There was a trepidation to engage with each other, especially from Rhodes' point of view."

The committee has looked into the two groups and their conflicts, trying to understand the dynamics, four people confirmed to CBS News.

"The questions the committee has asked and related answers reveal how it is deeply looking into how far-right groups were potentially riven by intense rivalry, even as they pursued similar and allegedly seditious aims during the Jan. 6 period," the report explained. "It is unclear if this line of inquiry will be included in the committee's public findings, if at all, as it pushes to finish its work in the coming weeks."

The report also cited several people close to the committee saying that members of Congress feel pressure to wrap up their probe. Reports last week said that the committee intends to conduct public hearings in May and June with the culmination of their findings coming out in a report this summer.

The committee has spent 10 hours speaking to both Rhodes and Tarrio about their roles in their respective groups. Rhodes, in particular, appeared for six hours, while Tarrio for at least four.

Several witnesses have given information about how right-wing groups work and the internal debates between them. Donald Trump and his mission on Jan. 6 is what brought them together, the committee found.

Rhodes is on trial under charges of seditious conspiracy, while Tarrio is still in jail pending trial, with several federal charges, including conspiracy.

Read the full report at CBS News.