Unfair Park from p7 themselves,” Paxton wrote. “All across the country, conservatives have faced threats to their safety — many threats that received scant coverage or condemnation from the mainstream media.” He added, “It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy in- volving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family.” A Texas judge would later rule last Tues- day that Paxton didn’t have to show up for the hearing as part of the abortion funds’ lawsuit. After the judge’s decision, the attor- ney general put out another statement about the ordeal. In his statement, Paxton called the controversy a “shameless stunt” by his political opponents. “Here are the facts: a strange man came onto my property at home, yelled unintelli- gibly, and charged toward me,” Paxton said in his statement. “I perceived this person to be a threat because he was neither honest nor upfront about his intentions.” He said people have been incarcerated for previous threats against him. “I take a num- ber of common sense precautions for me and my family’s safety when I’m at home,” Paxton said. “Texans do the same to protect them- selves from threats, and many also exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their families.” He added, “Given that this suspicious and erratic man charged me on my private prop- erty, he is lucky this situation did not esca- late further or necessitate force.” Paxton is up for reelection in November. After defeating George P. Bush in a Republi- can primary runoff, he will face his Demo- cratic opponent for the seat, Rochelle Garza. In a Twitter post about the affidavit, Garza wrote, “Ken Paxton is running from the law. I’m running to replace him.” ▼ CAPITOL RIOT MILITIAMAN STEWART RHODES AND FOUR OTHERS ARE ON TRIAL FOR SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND OATH BREAKERS O nly a few days after Joe Biden’s vic- tory in the November 2020 presi- dential election, Oath Keepers militia founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes was already on InfoWars warning that the “deep state” was trying to “illegitimately” remove then-President Donald Trump. Rhodes laid out his militia’s plans in an interview with host Alex Jones, a longtime conspiracy theorist, at an upcoming rally. If Rhodes and his people had anything to do with it, Trump wouldn’t be leaving the Oval Office at all. Militiamen were already “stationed out- 8 side D.C. as a nuclear option,” Rhodes ex- plained. “In case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it.” His men were in D.C. and outside the city, “armed and prepared to go in if the president calls us up,” he added. On Jan. 6, after supporters attended Trump’s so-called “Stop the Steal” rally in dent at one rally after another throughout his four years in office and vowed to dis- patch armed men to voting polls ahead of the November 2020 elections. “While these groups claim all these [stances] against the government, in reality they’re anti-democratic governments,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, the interim deputy di- rector of research at the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “A lot of people want to believe that some of these folks might just be bombastic, full of hot air, but what Jan. 6 proved is that isn’t just what they are.” When the Capitol riot happened, the Oath Keepers felt “called to act,” added Car- roll Rivas. “This is the mission of most of this movement.” Jacob Vaughn D.C., the Oath Keepers sprang into action. Not long after Trump urged protesters to “fight like hell,” the militiamen joined a pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Cap- itol in a failed attempt to prevent the certi- fication of Biden’s electoral victory. Last Tuesday, jury selection started in the federal trial of Rhodes, who is a resident of Granbury, and four other Oath Keepers ac- cused of seditious conspiracy and other charges, including deadly assault. At a hear- ing earlier last month, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said the five had been grouped to- gether because they served as “top lieuten- ants” in the militia. The charges could carry a sentence of up to two decades in prison. Three of the 11 Oath Keepers charged with seditious con- spiracy have already pleaded guilty. Historically, seditious conspiracy charges have been hard to prove. In 2010, prosecu- tors charged members of the far-right, Christian militia known as Hutaree with se- ditious conspiracy. The following year, a judge tossed out the charges, saying the gov- ernment’s evidence was insufficient. In fact, federal prosecutors hadn’t successfully prosecuted a seditious conspiracy case since 1995, when 10 Islamist militants were con- victed after they’d plotted to blow up several buildings in New York City, including the United Nations. But Alan Rozenshtein, an associate pro- fessor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School, pushed back on the idea that seditious conspiracy might be too difficult to prove in Rhodes’ case. “If the alleged con- duct is true, this is the textbook seditious conspiracy,” he said. “Here the alleged conduct, which is plot- ting to use force to prevent the certification by the Electoral College, is not hard to prove,” added Rozenshtein. “That is literally what the statute is for.” R hodes, who reportedly lost sight in his left eye when a handgun he dropped went off, graduated from Yale Law School in 2004. At one point, he worked as an aide to Ron Paul, the libertar- ian and former U.S. congressman from Texas. He founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, not long after the country elected its first Black president, Barack Obama. Over the years, the group’s membership Oath Keepers militia founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes is on trial for sedition. swelled as it plucked new recruits from the military and law enforcement. By 2014, Rhodes claimed, their numbers had hit 35,000, although experts estimated that its membership was far smaller at the time. From the start, conspiracy theories fu- eled the militia. In 2014, Oath Keepers joined a now-infa- mous armed standoff at a ranch in Bunker- ville, Nevada. There, they showed up armed in support of Cliven Bundy, a cattle rancher who allegedly owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for using federal lands near his property. Ever engulfed in paranoia, Rhodes and others reportedly believed the U.S. govern- ment was plotting a drone strike on the area, and the leader yanked his men from what he called “the kill zone.” The move prompted controversy among Bundy sup- porters, some of whom were later filmed discussing whether to shoot and kill Rhodes and his men for “desertion” and “cowardice.” In the end, they voted to ban the Oath Keepers from the property. Later that year, in November, a police of- ficer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, in Ferguson, Mis- souri. When Black Lives Matter protests subsequently hit the St. Louis suburb, Oath Keepers members showed up in force, tak- ing posts on rooftops and toting weapons despite local police ordering them to leave, local newspapers reported at the time. In 2015, Rhodes lost his license to practice law when the Montana Supreme Court dis- barred him for not responding to bar com- plaints in a federal district court in Arizona. Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an Alabama-based watchdog, de- scribes the Oath Keepers as “one of the country’s largest far-right antigovernment groups.” And although the militia move- ment has picked one fight after another with the federal government, the Oath Keepers eventually found a politician they could get behind. When Trump took over the White House, Rhodes and his militiamen lined up behind him. The militiamen showed up as “volunteer security” at Trump’s January 2017 inaugura- tion, came out to back the Republican presi- R hodes eventually delivered on his promises to go to battle for Trump, according to federal prosecutors. Ahead of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021, Oath Keepers allegedly transported weapons and ammunition to a stash house in the D.C. area. When the riot broke out, hundreds ral- lied outside the Capitol building. Some at- tacked police officers outside. Many of those who made it inside wandered throughout the building, doing a reported $1.5 million in vandalism. Rhodes stayed outside the building, pros- ecutors say, but video footage from the day shows other Oath Keepers, dressed in mili- tary-like garb, forming a column and push- ing their way inside. In court filings, two of Rhodes’ attorneys, James Lee Bright and Phillip Linder, have argued that Rhodes and his militiamen had come in tactical gear to protect themselves against anti-fascists. Neither attorney re- plied to the Observer’s request for comment. Meanwhile, federal authorities have thus far charged more than 900 people around the country in connection with the Capitol riot. Of that total, some 396 have entered guilty pleas. According to the FBI’s Dallas office, more than 40 North Texans have been arrested on charges related to the Capitol riot. Last Monday, Daniel Caldwell, a 51-year-old resi- dent of The Colony, pleaded guilty to as- saulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. The Department of Justice says Caldwell pepper sprayed po- lice officers during the riot. He could face up to 20 years in prison. Still, the Oath Keepers continue to com- mand an influential presence on the far right. Late last year, the nonprofit group Distrib- uted Denial of Secrets published some 38,000 names on Oath Keepers membership lists. Texas had the most members, with more than 3,300, including several in law enforce- ment, the Anti-Defamation League found in an analysis of the membership rolls. Although the Jan. 6 prosecutions and negative publicity could take a toll on the Oath Keepers, Shane Burley, author of Fas- cism Today and Why We Fight, doubts “it will be a nail in the coffin” for the militia. “They have lasting power where other organizations don’t because they were able to transcend certain barriers,” he said. “They’ve been really good at recruitment, but also the GOP has moved into a space the Oath Keepers already occupied.” >> p11 OCTOBER 6–12, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
