In a 337-page court document cited by JJ MacNab, a fellow at the George Washington University's program on extremism, for the case of Jan. 6 defendant Ed Vallejo provides details about an organizing phone call held by members of the right-wing Oath Keepers group.
Vallejo has said that he was just following Donald Trump's orders when he participated in Jan. 6, but a large part of his activities show his work planning for the fight. The southern California man is an associate of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
One part of the Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2020, Oath Keeper meeting cited the men speculating about what weapons they could legally bring into Washington, D.C. without being arrested on sight.
Exhibit 10 cites the point at which the Oath Keepers decided that they were going to Washington.
"We've done D.C. before," said Rhodes on the call. "This is not our first rodeo. We've got (indiscernible). So I'm -- let's get ready to scrap, man. You know, wear yourself some -- gloves, wear a cup, wear a helmet. Get ready to fight. If you've got stab-proof body armor, wear that, you know. So be ready to scrap if you're going to go into D.C. Now in the past, -- I'll say this. If you're a cop, especially, you've got more gray area with other cops. That's just a reality. I've seen the D.C. Police give a courtesy pass to their brother officer who is armed in D.C."
He went on to say that "officially" they'll comply with DC gun laws, whether or not they believe in them, because being locked up in jail does nothing for their cause.
"So I'll tell you, we've done this in the past. For example, in Berkeley, California, Bill Chaucer (ph.) went in there," Rhodes continued. "The cops were armed because the cops in Berkeley wouldn't tell the other cop he couldn't be armed in the park. All of us military veterans were unarmed. We were just there to fight, you know, helmets on, body armor. We were just holding ourselves up as much as possible..."
Rhodes was talking about the attack on the California college town in 2017 where Ann Coulter was set to speak, until the university canceled it.
"But our official position will be that we will go in unarmed, and then we'll have our armed group on the outside in case things go completely to shit, all right. I know it's messy. I know it's not perfect," Rhodes continued.
An unidentified speaker chimed in, "I have a question about less lethal." Rhodes tells him to go ahead. "We were wondering if less lethal would include maybe Mace or pepper balls, things of that nature."
"Pepper spray is legal. Tasers are legal, and stun guns are legal," said Rhodes. "And it doesn't hurt to have a lead pipe with a flag on it. For example, when I was walking through the streets of Portland, I was quote/unquote unarmed, but I had my helmet in my hand. Guess what that was for? That was to whack someone right across the face if they're going to come at me. So, there are ways around -- there's ways of dealing with things that improvise as tools, okay."
Another man chimed in saying, "And even though they are lawful, we just have to use them appropriately and that's hitting objects around the people, not the people directly."
The group went on to discuss knives one person claimed that they could bring anything under three inches. A man identified as A.S. told the group, "knives are legal and knives are allowed to be secreted. That was posted in the North Carolina's Members' Chat."
They broke into a working group that would research the knives that were allowed and how they could be used.
The Oath Keepers was founded on this day in 2009 after guns were confiscation in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina. April 19 is known to the far-right as a major holiday when the Revolutionary War began, and the anniversary of the gun battle between the government and the apocalypse cult the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Two years later, anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19 because of the the Branch Davidians.
