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Three Oath Keepers face conspiracy charges for planning to breach the Capitol in advance. The @nytimes Visual Investigations team tracked 10 members of the far-right paramilitary group that operated in sync with the alleged conspirators on Jan. 6. THREAD https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/29/us/oath-keepers-capitol-riot.html
The charges against Jessica Watkins, Donovan Crowl and Thomas Caldwell are not typical for Capitol rioters. According to messages seen by the F.B.I. they coordinated with Oath Keepers from other states and debated having someone staged nearby with weapons https://www.justice.gov/file/1361066/download
So we wanted to know who was with them on Jan 6. In videos we see that they travel throughout the crowd in a group, but when we looked more closely we realized it was the same group of at least 10 people with Oath Keepers insignia.
The earliest we see them is between 9 and 10 a.m., in this photo by @WilliamTurton, when they arrive for Trump’s speech. Note: Most of them are not wearing tactical gear.
They watch Trump’s speech until 12:52 p.m. , when you see them snake through the crowd. Just saying, this is the exact moment the west side of the Capitol was breached over a mile away.
Next, they pop up in this video walking toward the Capitol. Note, several are in tactical gear they didn’t have earlier in the day.
Several Oath Keepers were spotted with earpieces or radios on Jan 6. @MicahLoewinger and @HamptonStall found a Zello radio channel where one of the alleged conspirators, Watkins, discussed the group’s movements. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/zello-tapes-walkie-talkie-app-used-during-insurrection-on-the-media
When they reach the east side of the Capitol, the group snakes up the center stairs toward the open doors.
Inside the Capitol Rotunda the alleged conspirators take a selfie video later posted to Parler. We spot some of the 10 in various videos including one of them praying.
When they exit the building, all 10 of the people we tracked gather around Stewart Rhodes, the founder and president of the Oath Keepers.
Rhodes has made some incendiary, often violent speeches, calling to overturn the government.
Rhodes denies any involvement in planning an attack on Jan 6. But two of the alleged conspirators — Watkins and Crowl — have attended events alongside Rhodes before, such as this event in November photographed by @rstevensbrody.
This was teamwork, as always: @btdecker, @trbrtc, @markscheffler, @singhvianjali, @tiefenthaeler, @bottidavid, @DrewJordan_NYT and @robinnyc7.
Also a big shoutout to those involved in the crowdsourced effort, such as @jsrailton and the “Capitol Terrorists Exposers” Discord group ( @AM_Harbelubun et al.) that first established Crowl’s identity, until then only known by “Trapper” and continue to stitch clue upon clue.
Our Visual Investigations team will continue to work on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Check the following link for all our work that has already been published on @nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/us-capitol-riots-investigations.
