How Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes went from ballroom dancing to sedition charges

It was a bright cold day in November, just a few days after Joe Biden had been declared the next president of the United States, and a few thousand people gathered in Washington DC to protest what they believed was a stolen election.

Donald Trump’s campaign to undermine the results of the vote he lost had only just begun, and the idea had not yet gained widespread popularity. These were the die-hards, the true believers: the Proud Boys, Boogaloos and the Oath Keepers.

The latter of those groups was hard to miss in the crowd that day. The Oath Keepers, one of the largest anti-government groups in the US today, claims in its ranks tens of thousands of former law enforcement officials and military veterans. I found them milling around in full military fatigues and green hats in view of the US Capitol building. Standing among them dressed all in black, and wearing his distinctive eye patch, was the group’s founder, 56-year-old Stewart Rhodes.