Oath Keepers Founder Is Under Scrutiny, Court Documents Show
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Authorities investigating the attack on democracy January 6 are interested in the founder of the Oath Keepers. Stewart Rhodes started the far-right militia group. So who is he really? Here's NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: In April of 2009, a barrel-chested man with a goatee and wire-rimmed glasses took the stage before a small crowd in Lexington, Mass.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oorah (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oorah.
STEWART RHODES: Oorah. All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Unintelligible).
RHODES: I'm Stewart Rhodes. I'm the founder of Oath Keepers.
LUCAS: That event served as a coming-out party for Oath Keepers and for Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate. Over the past 12 years, the group has tried to recruit military and law enforcement. It has established chapters across the country and claims to have tens of thousands of members, although researchers estimate the real number is probably no higher than 5,000. But even that would make it one of the biggest groups in America's far-right militia movement. Rhodes says Oath Keepers is dedicated to defending the rights of Americans from what he calls a tyrannical government. But watchdog groups and researchers have a different view.
SAM JACKSON: I refer to Oath Keepers as an anti-government extremist group.
Read more: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/oath-keepers-founder-under-scrutiny-court-documents-show
