roger stone oath keepers
Roger Stone greets supporters after he spoke in front of the Supreme Court on January 05, 2021 in Washington, DC. Members of the Oath Keepers militant group provided security.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Six people who guarded Roger Stone in Washington, DC, before the January 6 Capitol riot participated in the insurrection, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

It was previously reported by Vice that several of the men who accompanied Stone, a friend and former adviser of former President Trump, were associated with the Oath Keepers, a militant anti-government extremist group. All six guards found by The Times to have breached the Capitol were part of the Oath Keepers. 

The Times said it “combed through hundreds of videos and photos, and drew on research from an online monitoring group called the Capitol Terrorists Exposers” to track down the whereabouts of Stone’s security team during the riot. Stone made two appearances in DC on January 5, and a third appearance the next morning.

Read more: Trump’s impeachment defense is basically ‘Don’t hold me accountable for violence or there might be more violence.’

In a statement to ABC News, which first obtained one video that showed Stone with Oath Keepers militants, Stone said he had “no advance knowledge” of the riot.

"I could not even tell you the names of those who volunteered to provide security for me, required because of the many threats against me and my family," Stone told the outlet.

The Oath Keepers are part of the anti-government movement which includes the Three Percenters, who were also represented at the Capitol riot. Though Oath Keepers claim to defend the Constitution, "the entire organization is based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center

Oath Keepers planned for the Capitol attack and even trained people for the January 6 event ahead of time, according to court documents obtained by Insider's Jacob Shamsian. Three people tied to the Oath Keepers have been arrested in connection with the riot, The Times reported, including a man believed to be a leader of the national group. 

Read the original article on Insider