Oath Keepers Founder: DC Parking Garage Meeting Was Brief Handshake, Not a Conspiracy

Encounter lasted less than 30 seconds—not 30 minutes—with no discussion about the Capitol, Stewart Rhodes says

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes (R) looks on as Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio (L) speaks with attorney Kellye SoRelle and others at a parking garage meeting in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. Rhodes says he merely shook Tarrio’s hand and did not have any conversation. Saboteur Media/Handout via REUTERS

A parking garage contact between Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III and former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio on Jan. 5, 2021, was nothing more than a brief handshake, not a meeting to coordinate plans for the following day at the U.S. Capitol, Rhodes said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Federal prosecutors detailed the alleged parking-garage meeting between Rhodes and Tarrio in the March 7, 2022, indictment of Tarrio and five other Proud Boys accused of conspiracy to obstruct the counting of Electoral College votes at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.