Prosecutors Revealed Surprising Rebel Information Hours Earlier than GOP Killed Jan. sixth Fee: Report

As Senate Republicans block the legislative debate to set up a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol insurgency, federal prosecutors continue to reveal more information about what their investigation uncovered.

“Hours before Senate Republicans killed an independent commission to investigate the January 6th siege, prosecutors released announcements about the Oath Keepers allegedly planned to storm Washington DC with guns across the Potomac River by boat,” reported Adam Klasfeld for Law & Crime on Friday.

“These discussions came publicly on a file attempting to comply with the stringent conditions for the pre-trial release of Oath Keepers member Thomas Caldwell, who prosecutors allege organized a group of militia members to be held at a hotel on the on the other side of the river with weapons at the ready. ” In the letter, prosecutors also alleged that a message from the militia leader described a “worst-case scenario” in which former President Donald Trump “calls us as part of the militia to help him in DC”. Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida extremist group, drew a line from one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s immortal verses and allegedly imagined militia members as the modern equivalent of their American colonial ancestors, ”he explained.

Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” from 1861 describes the use of lanterns to signal troop movements at the beginning of the American Revolution:

Listen, my children, and you will hear
From Paul Revere’s midnight ride,
On April eighteenth, in seventy-five:
Hardly a man lives now
Who remembers this famous day and year?

He said to his friend: “When the British march
By land or water from the city tonight
Hang a lantern in the bell tower arch
From the north church tower as a signal light –
One on land and two on water;
And I’ll be on the opposite bank
Ready to go and raise the alarm

Meggs reportedly referred to the poem in a message sent on the group’s encrypted signal channel.

“1 if by land[,] North side of the Lincoln Memorial, ”he wrote. “2 if by sea[,] The corner of the West Basin and Ohio is a landing for water transportation !! “

In February, the New York Times was the first to report on the Navy’s landing scheme.

“On Thursday, appalling new details emerged about the Oath Keepers militia group’s conspiracy to attack the Capitol when prosecutors said members were discussing a brazen plan to bring” heavy weapons “in a boat across the Potomac River to Washington began training sessions on “urban warfare, counterinsurgency and rescue operations” long before election day, “the newspaper reported. “Shortly after the three militiamen were arrested last month, prosecutors said they were some of the first rioters to plan their part in the attack on the Capitol instead of just storming the building on the spot.”

The new filing contains a long message from Meggs to another militia leader:

I can’t believe I was just thinking: How many people in the militia or not (who still support our efforts to save the Republic) have a boat on a trailer that could handle a Potomac crossing? If we had someone at a dock ramp (one near the Pentagon for sure), we could have our Quick Response Team stand by with the heavy weapons, load them quickly, and take them across the river to our waiting arms. I’m not talking about a bass boat. Who would be interested in helping the team in this way? I’ll buy the fuel. More or less hanging out, drinking coffee and maybe romping around in the river pretending to be fishing. If it all sucks, our guy loads our weps AND Blue Ridge militia weps and brings them over. Dude! If we had 2 boats we could cross and never go to DC !!!! Then pick yourself up. Is there any way I could get the word out among people you know and see if someone would jump in to help? I spread the word too. Genius when someone is ready and hasn’t put their boat away for the winter.

In the files, prosecutors contained video surveillance of militiamen carrying items in the form of long guns.