Secret Service agents were in close communication with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes months before the Jan. 6 insurrection he helped plan.
The government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) obtained internal Secret Service emails showing an agent sent an email to others within the agency in September 2020 notifying them he had spoken to Rhodes about an upcoming visit by then-president Donald Trump to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The agent described himself "the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official)" in the email, and said Rhodes and other members of the anti-government militia wanted "to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups.”
He told the other agents that Rhodes "had specific questions" and shared the Oath Keepers founder's cell phone number, and the agent followed up the following day with another email explaining the group members hoped to "assist those attending the event make it to and from their cars safely. They are NOT there to demonstrate or push a political agenda.”
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A former member of the group testified in October 2022 that Rhodes had spoken to the Secret Service to coordinate around the rally, but a spokesman said at the time that the agency didn't have enough information to determine whether that call took place -- which the emails now show had occurred.
An agent asked for intelligence about the Oath Keepers, and another said that news articles showed Rhodes had denounced white nationalists and disliked Antifa, the loosely knit anti-fascist activist group.
It's not clear whether the contacts with Rhodes continued past September 2020, but he was convicted in November 2022 of seditious conspiracy for his role in trying to keep Trump in the White House and was later sentenced to 18 years in prison.
