Oath Keepers leader tried to ask Trump to forcibly stop January 6 transfer of power

Stewart Rhodes, the leader of one of the largest extremist groups in the United States, allegedly tried to ask Donald Trump through an intermediary to allow his militia group to “forcibly oppose the transfer of power” on 6 January 2021.

The Department of Justice made these allegations in a court submission against William Todd Wilson, another Oath Keepers member accused of trying to prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power by force last year.

This intermediary, not named in the document, denied Mr Rhodes’s request of speaking directly with Mr Trump, said the justice department.

Mr Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was arrested on 13 January, just over a year after the attacks and stands accused of seditious conspiracy arising out of the insurrection of the US capitol on 6 January last year.

He made this phone call from inside a private suite in Phoenix hotel after the militia group left the Capitol grounds, following the insurrection on 6 January.