Thread by @trbrtc

Several members of the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers face conspiracy charges for planning to breach the Capitol. We tracked 10 others operating in sync with the alleged conspirators, and how they connect to the group's leader. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

In our new Visual Investigation, and in this thread, we lay out how two of the individuals indicted —Jessica Watkins and Donovan Crowl— are seen throughout the day among this group of 10 self-identified Oath Keepers.

The full identities of the 10 Oath Keepers we’ve tracked are currently unknown, but after they left the Capitol, all of them can be seen gathered around the Oath Keepers’ founder, Stewart Rhodes, just 20 meters from the building.

In the morning of Jan. 6, many Oath Keepers are spotted near the Ellipse where Trump would speak hours later. Among them is Watkins, on the far right, as well as four others we're tracking, as seen in this photo taken by @WilliamTurton.

Crowl is also present at the rally, seen in this photo on the far right with goggles, along with several others wearing Oath Keeper shirts. They’re standing next to the “Nuns for Trump,” just south of the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument.

It's worth pointing out that many of the self-identified Oath Keepers, including Watkins, are inside the official area for the “Save America March” — suggesting they had tickets for the event. Note that they don't wear tactical gear yet.

At 12:53 p.m., twenty minutes before Trump’s speech ends —*the same minute that rioters first breach through the Capitol’s perimeter fence*— a large group of self-identified Oath Keepers is led out of the rally by a man with tan balaclava and beige cap.

It's over an hour later, at 2:06 p.m., when we see this group again, now marching with hundreds of other Trump supporters down Pennsylvania Ave. toward the Capitol. It's worth noting that most of them switched their casual clothing for more tactical gear, like vests and helmets.

It's unclear where they picked up their vests and helmets. For what it's worth, the F.B.I. cites private messages that two persons (which we known are “Paul” and ”Sharon” from the affidavit) were in the wider DC area, one with “goodies.” justice.gov/file/1361066/d…

Remember the man in tan balaclava and beige cap? He's not with the group marching and he didn't changes his clothing. Instead, he's spotted at the Capitol's east doors which are about to be breached, a Parler video uploaded at 2:08 p.m. shows.

Meanwhile, on the Zello “Stop the Steal, J6” channel, Watkins is heard saying: “Trump’s been trying to drain the swamp with a straw. We just brought a shop vac.” We know this thanks to earlier reporting of @MicahLoewinger and @HamptonStall. wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/s…

The Capitol's east doors break at 2:25 p.m. Within minutes, the self-identified Oath Keepers we're tracking are seen ascending the steps of the building toward the tan balaclava man already at top. We examined that moment in detail last week:

Minutes later, all of the self-identified Oath Keepers we're tracking are seen inside the Capitol. The selfie video on the left shows Crowl and Watkins, and three others are seen praying in the clip on the left.

We estimate that most of these self-identified Oath Keepers were inside the Capitol building, mostly in and around the Rotunda, for about half an hour. This photo shows Crowl alongside three of the others we're tracking.

Here's a large part of the group outside the Capitol's east doors at 3:14 p.m., filmed by @nytimes. Capitol Police officers are to the left, just outside of this frame.

At 3:48 p.m., as police are finally clearing the Capitol’s east entrance, the 10 Oath Keepers we tracked gather around with Stewart Rhodes, the group’s founder, alongside many more apparent militia members. They’d be there for about 30 minutes.

Here's another view of that gathering, only 20 meters northeast of the Capitol building, photographed by @rstevensbrody. Rhodes is barely visible, but you can recognize his black cowboy hat.

The alleged conspirators Watkins and Crowl are standing just a few hundred meters away, seemingly watching incoming National Guards, we know from a Parler video. Both have been spotted alongside Rhodes at protests before, as this photo of the Nov. 14 “Million MAGA March” shows.

In the months leading up to the Capitol attack, Rhodes’ message was consistent: President Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act and overturn the government with assistance of militias and his Oath Keepers.

When Trump lost the election, Rhodes became even more vocal, urging Trump to overturn the election or risk the Oath Keepers engaging in a “bloody fight” against the left on Trump’s behalf.

Yesterday, Rhodes spoke with Alex Jones on Infowars. He confirmed Watkins was a dues-paying Oath Keeper, but denied other involvement. “I was not part of this,” Rhodes said, saying their call to action was to protect people. “They’re going to demonize us.”

The @nytimes Visual Investigations team will continue to examine the Capitol insurrection. This was teamwork, as always: @_stella_cooper @btdecker @markscheffler @singhvianjali @tiefenthaeler @bottidavid @DrewJordan_NYT @robinnyc7. All of our Jan. 6 work: nytimes.com/spotlight/us-c…

Also a big shoutout to those involved in the crowdsourced effort, i.e. @jsrailton and the “Capitol Terrorists Exposers” group (@AM_Harbelubun et al.) that are continuing to build clue-upon-clue. newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

At last, read and watch the full Visual Investigation here: nytimes.com/interactive/20…. We think several of the individuals we tracked are from Florida.