As hordes of violent, far-right activists were preparing to descend upon the U.S. Capitol to overthrow the 2020 election, one member of the Oath Keepers issued a private threat against former Mike Pence if he didn’t get in line to ensure a second term for Donald Trump.
“If he hopes to live till Friday, he better stand tall,” Thomas Caldwell said of the then-vice president in a Jan. 1, 2021 message revealed in federal court on Friday.
The text from the retired Navy intelligence officer came just four days before prosecutors allege Caldwell and other far-right militia members stormed the Capitol, executing a long-planned mission to “shatter a bedrock of American democracy.” The plan, which was first developed just days after Joe Biden was declared the victor of the 2020 presidential election, included training, conversations about going to war, and a stash of weapons outside of the D.C area in case Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, according to federal prosecutors.
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“It begins for real Jan 5 and 6 in Washington DC when we mobilize in the streets,” Caldwell said in another December 2020 message shown in court. “Let them try to certify some crud on Capitol Hill with a million or more patriots in the streets. This kettle is set to boil.”
In the end, the insurrection forced elected officials into hiding, and Pence was among them. The attack came after Trump called out Pence in a tweet for not overturning the Electoral College results—something he could not legally do—and included angry voters chanting “hang Mike Pence” within feet of his location. According to the New York Times, Pence ultimately spent five hours in an underground loading dock on Jan. 6.
Five Oath Keepers, including the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, are on trial for charges of seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era offense that is by far the most serious allegation lobbed at anyone in connection with the riot. All five individuals—which include Rhodes, Caldwell, Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs, member Kenneth Harrelson, and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group—have pleaded not guilty and face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Over the last week, prosecutors have walked jurors through what they describe as the Oath Keepers’ intense planning process since December 2020. The feds say that “like a general,” Rhodes surveyed his “troops” during the riot as they breached the Capitol in coordination with other far-right groups.
