Oath Keepers leader answers some questions from January 6 committee, his lawyer says

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes has been meeting with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection for several hours and is answering some questions, according to one of his attorneys.

“Stewart Rhodes is both answering many questions and taking the Fifth Amendment to other questions,” attorney Jonathon Moseley said in an email to CNN. “In order to cover as much ground as possible, the questioning has focused first on topics where there are no objections.”

Attorneys representing Rhodes in the hearing are objecting to questions the committee wants to ask about events after Election Day 2020, because his criminal trial is pending, Moseley said.

Rhodes is currently detained, following his arrest in January on seditious conspiracy charges related to the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol and a subsequent plot to overthrow the Biden presidency. He is currently in a federal detention facility in Oklahoma, Moseley said, so he is speaking to the committee remotely.

Rhodes, who founded the far-right group in 2009, began his interview with the committee at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and the questioning is still ongoing, Moseley said.

The committee had issued subpoenas to Rhodes and other Oath Keepers in November, along with the Proud Boys, another right-wing extremist group involved in the January 6 attack, and its leader Enrique Tarrio. The panel sought depositions from them and documents related to the events of that day, believing that they have “relevant information about how violence erupted at the Capitol and the preparation leading up to this violent attack,” committee Chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said in a statement at the time.

Rhodes is one of 11 defendants facing seditious conspiracy charges for his role in the insurrection. He is accused of organizing a group that took part in the attack and then continuing to plot against the Biden presidency and purchasing weapons and gear after January 6.

Rhodes has pleaded not guilty to his charges and is set to go to trial later this year, with proceedings in the federal district court in Washington, DC. A judge ruled that he will remain in jail as he awaits trial.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.