Secret Service agents were communicating with Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, just months before he led the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington revealed Wednesday. A thread of emails between agents revealed the contact, which contradicted a previous statement by the Secret Service that claimed it did “not have enough information” to say if a call between Rhodes and Secret Service agents ever happened. The reported call came in Sept. 2020, when Rhodes told the Secret Service his Oath Keepers hoped to provide “security details” for Donald Trump during a visit to North Carolina. Internal agency emails included an employee describing himself as the “unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers,” while also revealing that agents dug into the personal lives of the Oath Keepers—determining their social media posts “contained pro-gun content, commentary on racism in the U.S., and news articles about politics.”
