Oath Keepers founder spent six hours on Zoom with Jan. 6 panel

The founder of a right-wing group whose members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol spent about six hours Wednesday talking to the Jan. 6 committee on a Zoom call from a jail in Oklahoma.

Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, who is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, made a virtual appearance before the House committee from the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, one of his lawyers said. The correctional facility is under contract with the U.S. Marshals, who are transporting Rhodes to jail in Washington, D.C.

Rhodes invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 20 to 30 times, lawyer Jonathan Moseley said, but ended up talking extensively about the history of the Oath Keepers.

Moseley, a Virginia-based lawyer whose other clients have included Kelly Meggs, Zachary Rehl, a member of the Proud Boys, and other Jan. 6 defendants, said the committee let Rhodes “talk very freely” about the history of the organization, although his attorneys prevented him from answering questions that could affect his criminal case.