Key issues • Washington, DC

FBI got tip about Oath Keepers’ plans for armed fight in November 2020

On Nov. 9, 2020, as Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes told members of his paramilitary group to get ready to fight for President Donald Trump in the streets of Washington, one listener was secretly recording, an FBI agent testified Tuesday. An “increasingly alarmed follower” recorded the meeting and shared it with law enforcement, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said Monday in the federal trial of Rhodes and four others accused of a seditious conspiracy to keep Trump in office. But the tip, sent to the FBI on Nov. 25, 2020, was apparently ignored. Special Agent Michael Palian said in the second day of his testimony that he saw the message only when the tipster re-sent it in March 2021, after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and he was not aware of anyone reaching out to the person earlier.

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