Thread by @trbrtc

BREAKING: Six individuals affiliated with the Oath Keepers have been charged for conspiring to obstruct Congress. This thread details what we know about them, because the @nytimes Visual Investigations team has tracked several of them in earlier reporting. justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/six…

All six individuals have been added as co-defendants to a superseding indictment surrounding the group that ascended the Capitol's east steps in “military-style “stack” formation,” seen in this video.

https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1351806840494059521

Two couples are among the six new Oath Keepers that have been arrested and charged: Kelly (52) and Connie Meggs (59) of Dunnellon, FL, and Sandra Ruth Parker (62) and Bennie Alvin Parker (70) of Morrow, OH.

Per the indictment [🖼️1], Mr. Meggs is the self-described leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers. This claim can be corroborated with the (now defunct) website of the paramilitary group, which lists him as “state recruiting lead” [🖼️2] — as found by @CTExposers.

Similar to other arrestees, Mr. Meggs appears to have felt encouraged to go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by then President Trump, judging from his Facebook messages: “Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! [..] He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!!”

On Oct. 15, the Meggs were photographed at a Trump rally in Ocala, FL — a photo Mr. Meggs later posted to MeWe, a social media platform. His profile was found weeks ago by @CTExposers, a group of voluntary researchers whose info has driven some of the biggest Jan. 6 stories.

Note the similarities between Kelly Meggs' body armor and placement of the Oath Keepers patch in his MeWe profile picture that @CTExposers found, and this @RNickelsberg photo of him in front of the Supreme Court on Jan. 5, a day before the Capitol.

The Oath Keepers appeared to have provided security for the Jan. 5 event with Roger Stone in front of the Supreme Court. Besides Kelly Meggs, Connie Meggs was also spotted in the crowd, seen here in the foreground, with Mr. Stone speaking in the background.

This event on Jan. 5 wasn't the first time Connie Meggs was apparently providing security at a rally where Roger Stone spoke. Less than a month earlier, on Dec. 14, she was spotted in a more prominent security role, this time in Largo, FL. Found, again, by: @CTExposers.

We tracked the movements of both Kelly and Joe Meggs on Jan. 6 in this earlier piece — from attending Trump's speech (and leaving as the Capitol's perimeter was breached) to entering the building, moving as if in military formation.

https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1355287461321175040

Our previous Visual Investigation into the Oath Keepers was also read by those preparing the criminal complaint, it seems.. You can read the full piece here: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Some observations we made on the Ohio couple —Sandra Ruth Parker (62) and Bennie Alvin Parker (70). According to the criminal complaint, both joined Watkins' militia in late Dec. 2020. You can see both Parkers in this video, not the Ohio flag patches.

https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1355293573147668481

(I meant “note” not “not.”) Anyway, it's worth pointing out that we've only seen visual evidence of Sandra Parker inside the Capitol — e.g. in this photo by @saulloeb. It seems Ben Parker stayed outside; he's spotted in the second photo by
@rstevensbrody:

https://twitter.com/rstevensbrody/status/1349508509877067776

“Got back into my 1000 piece puzzle,” wrote Sandra Parker on Facebook *after her fellow militia members with whom she had entered the Capitol were charged with conspiracy.* Her social media profile has now been deleted, but @CTExposers' @bennybryant17 archived a bunch of it.

The fifth individual that was charged in federal court this week: Graydon Young. You've probably seen him in this widely published @saulloeb photo, tapping another Oath Keeper on the shoulder inside the Capitol's Rotunda. We tracked him back in January: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The sixth and last individual associated with the Oath Keepers of this week's arrests is Laura Steele (52) of Thomasville, NC. She's Young's sister. Again, we tracked her in our previous piece: nytimes.com/interactive/20…. The @CTExposers group made this handy overview of visuals.

tl;dr — out of 12 apparent Oath Keepers that formed the military-style “stack” of going up the Capitol's east steps, 7 have been arrested and charged:

1- K. Meggs
2- x
3- x
4- x
5- x
6- C. Meggs
7- Watkins
8- Steele
9- Young
10- Crowl
11- S. Parker
12- x nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Outside of this group of 12, there were at least a dozen other Oath Keepers on Capitol grounds, several of whom would enter the Capitol as well — and some had provided security to Roger Stone earlier that day and the day before. nytimes.com/interactive/20…