A new report from a government watchdog details an alarmingly comfortable relationship between the U.S. Secret Service and far right militant group the Oath Keepers during the final months of the Trump administration.
The report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) was published on Wednesday, and includes communications between Secret Service agents, including emails from one who claimed to be a “liaison” between the agency and the right-wing group.
Several high-ranking members of the Oath Keepers — a far right, anti-government organization that is comprised of former law enforcement officials and military veterans who frequently align with white nationalist groups — were involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Stewart Rhodes, then the leader of the organization, was convicted last fall of seditious conspiracy for his role in coordinating the attack, orchestrated by a mob of Trump loyalists, to keep former President Donald Trump in office.
It’s unclear whether the Secret Service and the Oath Keepers were in communication with each other at that point. However, the report from CREW demonstrates that the entities had a very chummy relationship just months before the January 6 attack.
According to the report, an email from one Secret Service agent to others indicated that they had been in communication with Rhodes, and were acting as an “unofficial liaison” between the agency and the right-wing group — “inching towards” becoming the “official” intermediary, the agent added, seemingly eager to take on that role. The email also vastly downplayed the Oath Keepers’ far right views, stating to the other agents in the email that the group’s “stated purpose is to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups” during a rally set to take place in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that September.
A separate agent, who also spoke to Rhodes, minimized the group’s past actions by saying their intentions were merely to ensure “those attending the event make it to and from their cars safely.”
“They are NOT there to demonstrate or push a political agenda,” that agent added.
Other members of the Secret Service also appeared willing to downplay the group’s white supremacist ties. When an agent involved in the email expressed concern about working with Rhodes, another suggested that his ties to white nationalists were not as strong as the media suggested — even though, as CREW pointed out, “there was plenty of other publicly available information about Rhodes and the Oath Keepers at the time that should have easily raised alarm.”
As CREW showcases in its report, the Oath Keepers traveled to Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, arming themselves and intimidating demonstrators during the uprising following the police killing of Michael Brown. The group has also taken disturbing political stances, comparing Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler in 2015; that same year, Rhodes said that John McCain should be hanged for supposedly committing treason against the U.S.
The Oath Keepers have a documented history of having “repeatedly worked alongside white supremacist and white nationalist groups,” CREW wrote.
“It feels like a huge oversight for Secret Service special agents to be in close communication with Stewart Rhodes, without acknowledging the Oath Keepers’ ties to white nationalists and clashes with law enforcement,” CREW said in a separate tweet about the report.
While it’s unclear if the agency’s communications with Rhodes and/or the Oath Keepers continued beyond that month, the manner in which agents talked about the organization seems to indicate it may have lasted longer, perhaps up to or even beyond the 2020 presidential election.
The watchdog group also noted that it appeared that the Secret Service didn’t want the information about its communications with Rhodes made public.
“Based on how hard it was to get records back to our request, it sure seems like the Secret Service didn’t want us to know that special agents were in close contact with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes,” CREW said in another tweet.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy