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The attorneys for Stewart Rhodes shared his letter from jail exclusively with The Gateway Pundit this afternoon.
Stewart Rhodes was moved from his Plano, Texas holding cell to the Cimarron Prison and Correctional Facility in northeast Oklahoma. Cimarron is a medium-security facility in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Rhodes is the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, a group that describes itself as a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
The federal government has charged Stewart with “seditious conspiracy” after the patriotic group attended several events in Washington DC on January 5th and 6th, 2021. The organization provided security at several of the rallies planned those two days including President Trump’s speech at the Ellipse.
The charge of “seditious conspiracy” is a complete farce and the Department of Justice knows this. The DOJ claims, without a scintilla of proof, that the Oath Keepers were plotting to overthrow the US government by force. The Oath Keepers were unarmed on January 6 at the US Capitol.
Here is the first letter from Stewart Rhodes from the Cimarron Prison and Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma.
** Please donate to the Stewart Rhodes Legal Defense Fund.
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Stewart Rhodes Oath Keeper Founder Criminal Defense Fund
Mr. Rhodes is being prosecuted by the Department of Justice on charges of Seditious Conspiracy as well as four other counts. He is innocent of these charges and never breached the Capitol on January 6th nor instructed anyone to do so. Mr. Rhodes had no part in any plan or conspiracy to enter the Capitol on January 6th.
Oath Keepers was in Washington, D.C. on January 6th to do security for multiple events and VIP speakers. In addition, they were there to protect Trump supporters from Antifa and other left-wing elements if necessary.
Oath Keepers has a longstanding track record, all through the Trump administration, of protecting Trump supporters, events, and speakers from Antifa extremists that like to attack or threaten people in order to intimidate and silence them.
Oath Keepers protected event speakers and participants at the November Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. Then on January 5th, 2021, Oath Keepers protected events including the Jericho march around the Capitol. Additionally, on January 6th, Oath Keepers were tasked with protecting the Latinos for Trump rally as well as the Virginia Freedom Keepers rally two blocks NE of the Capitol.
After the December Stop the Steal rally, Oath Keepers provided PSD (personal security detail) security escorts for several high-profile female speakers such as Charlene Bolinger and Marsha Lessard of the Virginia Freedom Keepers and several others––escorting them from Freedom Plaza to the Supreme Court, along with and part of the entourage and security detail for Alex Jones.
Oath Keepers was also tasked with protecting Roger Stone on January 6th and did so.
Finally, Oath Keepers was tasked with protecting Ali Alexander and his speakers at a permitted rally to be held on the Capitol grounds right across from the Supreme Court, known as area 8. Area 8 was approximately 75 yards from where Rhodes was standing in order to get all of the volunteers to come to him when it was apparent the chaos was starting.
Again, at no point was anyone ever instructed by Mr. Rhodes to enter into the Capitol. Unfortunately, two of the Oath Keepers’s security teams took it upon themselves to enter the Capitol without Mr. Rhodes’ knowledge.
Mr. Rhodes did not know that the Florida team had entered the Capitol until after they had come out, and he was informed that they had entered the Capitol. Mr. Rhodes was completely surprised by this. The forward team lead Kelly Meggs told Mr. Rhodes that they had gone inside after the fact. Mr. Rhodes asked him why he had done that, and Meggs told him, “We had heard someone had been shot.” Meggs had two EMS professionals on his team, so they entered the Capitol to render medical aid. Although honorable in foresight, in hindsight it was the worst idea they had.
Beginning with President Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, 2017, Oath Keepers teams were on the ground in DC escorting vulnerable Trump supporters such as the elderly, disabled vets, women, and families with children which are the main targets for Antifa.
However, the mainstream media, leftist politicians, and federal law enforcement agencies have been targeting Oath Keepers for years because they fundamentally misunderstand the Oath Keepers’ true purpose and misconstrue the group’s deeply held patriotic beliefs.
Thereafter, Oath Keepers has provided peacekeeping services at hundreds of events, such as those in downtown Berkeley, CA, and the ACT for America March Against Sharia Law events nationwide, and the “Back the Blue” rallies.
In all of those hundreds of events, Oath Keepers was able to deter Antifa from attacking, and no one that Oath Keepers has protected has even been harmed in any way. Nor has any Oath Keeper had to draw a weapon during the course of their security details. This is due to the fact that they only bring retired law enforcement and military to these events––one of the main reasons they are hated so much. In all of those protection details, Oath Keepers has worn body armor, helmets, and eye protection, as well as hard-knuckled gloves because Antifa likes to hit people in the head with bike locks, collapsible batons, pipes, sticks, bats, etc. Further, they like to throw urine, bleach, and other caustic fluids in the face of the security teams, which is why eye protection is needed.
At a prior Stop the Steal rally in November, various Proud Boys and a black female Trump supporter were attacked with knives. Hard plate body armor, which is often worn at such protection events by the Oath Keepers, helps to protect against those types of attacks.
The government’s selective criminal indictment fails to properly present, in a forthright fashion, many of the Oath Keepers’ lawful activities, which were always designed and planned to be in conformity with the law. This indictment falsely alleges that Oath Keepers traveled to the District of Columbia from all over the country with the specific intent to enter the Capitol and engage in Seditious Conspiracy.
Mr. Rhodes looks forward to a public trial and the clearing of his name, as well as the clearing of the names of all the other Oath Keepers and the organization as a whole.
** Please donate to the Stewart Rhodes Legal Defense Fund.