WASHINGTON—The head of the Oath Keepers was in contact with a Secret Service agent in the months leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, a former Oath Keepers member testified on Oct. 6.
John Zimmerman, the former member, testified that Oath Keepers were preparing for then-President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. Asked how they would know if Trump invoked the act, Zimmerman said Rhodes would likely be the first to learn of the development.
Rhodes didn’t have a connection with Trump but had the number of one of his Secret Service agents, Zimmerman testified in federal court in Washington.
Zimmerman also said that Rhodes told him that at one point, he spoke with somebody from the Secret Service.
Zimmerman has not been charged in relation to Jan. 6.
A Secret Service told The Epoch Times in an email, “We are aware that individuals from the Oath Keepers have contacted us in the past to make inquiries.” The spokesman suggested the inquiries were related to questions about what activities are allowed in sites protected by the service.
William Todd Wilson, another former Oath Keepers member, pleaded guilty earlier this year to obstruction of an official proceeding. Wilson, in the statement of defense, recounted being with Rhodes in a hotel room on the evening of Jan. 6 and Rhodes calling “an individual over speaker phone.”
“Wilson heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power. This individual denied Rhodes’s request to speak directly with President Trump. After the call ended, Rhodes stated to the group, ‘I just want to fight,’” according to the statement.
“That is accurate,” Wilson said in his plea hearing.
The Insurrection Act enables a president to deploy U.S. troops domestically if certain circumstances, such as civil disorder, arise.
Zimmerman told the court Thursday that he believed Trump might invoke the act due to there being a “rogue government.”
“Kind of like what we’re going through now, with Congress just seeming to do whatever they want,” he added.
Rhodes is one of the current or former Oath Keepers on trial for seditious conspiracy. He and his co-defendants face decades in prison if convicted.
The Oath Keepers is a group comprised of current and former members of the military, law enforcement, and first responders.
Zimmerman said what he understood as the group’s purpose shifted, leading to him exiting the organization. The group became known for providing security at events. He recounted Rhodes saying he hoped Antifa and Black Lives Matter would attack the Oath Keepers so the Oath Keepers could retaliate. “That’s not what we do,” Zimmerman recounted saying in response.
A retired Army member, Zimmerman, who lives in North Carolina, used to head one of the Oath Keepers chapters.
