Quote:As part of our ongoing investigation into the true story of the January 6 Capitol incident, Revolver shined a light on the federal government’s widespread use of informants and infiltrators within various extremist (and so-called “extremist”) groups. We explored how the FBI provokes and entraps suspects into participating in crimes that never would have happened without the Bureau’s instigation. And in our massive report earlier this week, we raised questions pointing to the possibility that Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes may be one of these informants and provocateurs.

Repeatedly, Rhodes has injected himself into disputes or ingratiated himself with public figures by deploying the Oath Keepers to provide private personal security, gratis. In 2018, Arizona Oath Keepers provided personal security for Sheriff Joe Arpaio during his Senate campaign.

As it turns out, three of the 12 Oath Keeprs indicted in the aftermath of January 6th were previously deployed as bodyguards for Roger Stone. This wasn’t a one-off operation, either. The DOJ’s own charging documents indicate that the Oath Keepers also accompanied Stone to events in Florida, and even visited his home. Oath Keepers also provided security to Alex Jones shortly before the Capitol incident, and in the months since, the federal government has “investigated” the possibility of charging Stone and Jones based on their ties to the group.
While offering bodyguard services in and of itself does not suggest any ulterior motives, the role of bodyguard is more or less the perfect role for an informant. The informant is literally required to spend huge amounts of time with the target, and to travel with them. They are often present during private conversations. They have a ready-made excuse to walk around armed, or to obtain access to a person or group’s private correspondence.

It is important to note that the particular Oath Keepers assigned to protection details don’t even have to be informants themselves. In some cases, bodyguards may inadvertently pass information up to their superior. Or, they may be full blown patsies, deployed by a handler who hopes to “flip” or compromise them if or when they end up breaking the law.

As Revolver noted earlier this week, personal security and bodyguards have historically served as a vector for police surveillance. Today, we’ll look at some of these cases in more depth.