Earlier this week a Fourth Superseding Indictment was filed against what now totals as 16 members of the Oath Keepers organization. The indictment is noteworthy as one of the few that alleges a conspiracy against the United States by those who assaulted the Capitol.
The indictment spells out a sophisticated plot to effectively takeover the government with the goal of arresting any all members of Congress they could find. Per the indictment "the purpose of the conspiracy was to stop, delay, and hinder the Certification of the Electoral College vote," but the means they intended to use to achieve this are chilling.
First, the Oath Keepers stocked a well armed "quick reaction force" somewhere just outside of the District of Columbia. They specifically discussed the armament for the Oath Keepers who would assault the Capitol as not including firearms, but including mace, batons, gas masks and armor. This was because firearms were not allowed in D.C. and they were afraid if a cache of it were found in advance this would compromise their plan.
The plan was for the Oath Keepers at the Capitol to get into a conflict with Antifa elements they thought would be there (but ultimately weren't). The Oath Keepers believed that would give Trump the pretext he needed to invoke the "Insurrection Act" and call forth the militia. Who would that militia be? Why the Oath Keepers of course.
Once called forth the heavily armed, with assault rifles and other weapons, quick reaction force would roll in to do what is necessary to keep Trump as President. You can much of this in ¶ 35 where it quotes "Person One" who is none of than the national leader of the Oath Keepers. His name is Stewart Rhodes and he has not yet been indicted (though I think he will be) because he was not at the Capitol. However Rhodes makes clear the violent nature of their plans:
"We’re going to defend the president, the duly elected president, and we call on him to do what needs to be done to save our country. Because if you don’t guys, you’re going to be in a bloody, bloody civil war, and a bloody – you can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight.”
There is also no doubt as to who was the inspiration for all this. Shortly after Trump tweeted claims of election fraud and "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Defendant Kelly Meggs posted on Facebook:
“Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! He wants us tomake it WILD that’s what he’s saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants usto make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!! Gentlemen we are heading to DC pack your shit!!”
In addition to the 16 charged so far the government apparently believes many more were involved in the conspiracy. The indictment suggests at least 20 more as it describes a "Person Twenty" who was involved in securing hotel rooms for the group. The likely explanation is that these people were in that heavily armed quick reaction force just outside D.C. There are lot more charges that could come from this.
One of the defendant's names is redacted. The most likely reason is that person has not yet been arrested, the FBI is searching for him and does not want to notify him that they are. There are also some more interesting redactions of communications between the conspirators. So there is more going on here than we see.
Communications on January 6th show the execution of a previously developed plan to assault the Capitol. At 1:50, just before breaching the Capitol, Defendant Jessica Watkins texted over a previously arranged secure transmission system known as Zello:
"We have a good group. We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan."
Just minutes later they breached the Capitol. If you were wondering what their purpose was, look no further than the administrator of their Zello account’s message sent at 2:03 pm:
"You are executing a citizen's arrest. Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud . . . "
This is what at least one Republican lawmaker claimed was just a typical Capitol tour. Look at that last quote when you wonder why Ashli Babbitt was shot.