The House Select Committee investigating the insurrection on January 6 shared a video of former Trump adviser Roger Stone taking the initial oath to join the far-right militia the Proud Boys during its seventh hearing.
Stone, a former Richard Nixon campaign official and longtime Republican operative, took the so-called “Fraternity Creed”, the panel revealed during its Tuesday hearing.
Maryland Democrat and committee member Jamie Raskin co-chaired the hearing, saying that reciting the creed is “the first level of initiation” into the group. Five members of the group are set to be tried in December on charges of seditious conspiracy, Insider reported.
“Stone’s ties to the Proud Boys go back many years,” Mr Raskin said. “He’s even taken their so-called ‘Fraternity Creed,’ required for the first level of initiation to the group.”
Footage was shown of Stone in a crowded outdoor area. “Hi, I’m Roger Stone. I’m a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologise for creating the modern world,” he said.
The hearing on Tuesday included clips of prerecorded testimony from lawyer Kellye SoRelle. She assists the Oath Keepers, another far-right group, and was also a volunteer attorney on the Trump campaign.
Ms SoRelle said that Stone and others gathered various extremists together. She said that Stone, Alex Jones of InfoWars, and organiser Ali Alexander were in charge of the planning of the stop-the-steal rallies in January of last year.
She said they “became like the centre point of everything”.
Mr Raskin said that the panel has only revealed a small portion of the evidence they have, such as communications between extremists and Trump associates.
The Maryland Representative said that Stone “regularly” communicated with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers in a group chat named “Friends of Stone” in the two months leading up to the attack on the US Capitol.
The leader and founder of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, was a member of “Friends of Stone”, as was the national chairman of the Proud Boys at the time, Enrique Tarrio, and Mr Alexander.
“Encrypted chats obtained by the select committee show that Kelly Meggs, the indicted leader of the Florida Oath Keepers, spoke directly with Roger Stone about security on January 5th and 6th,” Mr Raskin said. “In fact, on January 6th, Stone was guarded by two Oath Keepers who have since been criminally indicted for seditious conspiracy.”
“One of them later pleaded guilty, and according to the Department of Justice, admitted that the Oath Keepers were ready to use, quote, lethal force if necessary against anyone who tried to remove President Trump from the White House, including the National Guard,” he added.
The Proud Boys stand accused by federal prosecutors of leading the siege on Congress.
