THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 17Roper felt people in Clarke had always been concerned about
government overreach, but that the current anxiety was
amplified by the marketing of pro-gun groups. “I think
sometimes that the fear is just so much more than the reality.
When we get so afraid of things, we tend to overreact and we tend
to think the worst. And when there’s all these people that are
reinforcing those ideas, it can absolutely spiral out of control.”
One of the things I heard at Clarke County’s bars and
restaurants like the Lone Oak Tavern was that people might be
hotheaded or shoot for sport, but that it was just talk; they were
unlikely to take violent action. That also seemed to be forming
the core of Tom’s defense, according to his lawyer’s filings: that
his text messages were not premeditated but rather the puffs of
someone who was obsessed with Hollywood action films, a vet
who couldn’t let go of his military mind-set. But I also met and
came across on Facebook several people from the area who were
stockpiling ammunition and guns.
I reached out to Mark Pitcavage, who in the mid-1990s
created the Militia Watchdog website to cover the United States’
burgeoning militia movement. Pitcavage, now a senior research
fellow on extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, says that
Virginia developed a noticeable militia presence in the early
1990s. Over the past few decades, the movement has ebbed and
resurfaced, never disappearing. “The militia movement is an
extreme movement that indoctrinates people,” Pitcavage told
me. “It’s a movement that, by and large, accepts violence as a
solution.”T
he government’s evidence against Tom and the Oath
Keepers includes a large amount of social media and text
messages, some of which appear in numerous court filings as the
case slowly makes its way before a jury. Tom’s lawyer, David
Fischer, has disputed the use of these messages, claiming the
government has excerpted them out of context. Without access to
the full transcripts it is difficult to judge, but the excerpts that
appear so far, as well as Tom’s media appearances, allowed me to
piece together a timeline.
About a year after Tom appeared at the Board of Supervisors
meeting, he attended Trump’s Million MAGA March in D.C. on
Nov. 14, 2020. Afterward, the Caldwells hosted Donovan Crowl
and Jessica Watkins, the Ohio Oath Keepers members, along
with several others, at their farm. (The lawyer for Watkins
declined to comment, while lawyers for Crowl and Rhodes did
not respond to questions.) A few days after, the documents
show, Tom texted Watkins.
“Hi, CAP! Wanted to tell you it was great to have you here in
Virginia. Don’t know what [Rhodes] is cooking up but I am
hearing rumblings of another MAGA March 12 December. I
don’t know what will happen but like you I am very worried
about the future of our country...I believe we will have to get
violent to stop this, especially the antifa maggots who are sure
to come out en masse even if we get the Prez for 4 more
years...You are my kinda person and we may have to fight next
time. I have my own gear, I like to be ON TIME and go where
the enemy is, especially after dark. Keep the faith! -- Spy” (as
Tom identified himself).
In late November, Tom texted a contact in his phone saved
under the name “Oath”: “I was thinking. Regardless of what
popeye [Rhodes] does, maybe we should get, ideally, 3 four
man teams with a 2 man quick reaction force and 2
drivers/exractors to double as snipers/stallers (I’ll explain those
later)... .” Tom, who has a concealed-carry permit, also boughtcrats, they will take your guns away.” The rally, an annual event,
was also promoted by Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, and
attended by LaRock, a longtime champion of the VCDL. (The
group’s political action committee has given thousands to
LaRock’s campaign.) According to a Southern Poverty Law
Center report, at least 18 militias and 34 hate and extremist
groups attended.
Tom told conservative media that Rhodes had approached
him after hearing him speak at a rally in Northern Virginia after
the presidential election and asked if he was interested in
providing security. Rhodes is an Army veteran who founded the
Oath Keepers in 2009 to “pledge to fulfill the oath all military
and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies,
foreign and domestic.’ ” The Oath Keepers list gun confiscation
by the federal government as one of 10 “Orders We Will Not
Obey.” Tom gave Rhodes his contact information.
I stopped by the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office to meet Sheriff
Tony Roper. Roper is the rare public figure who manages to keep
both Republicans and Democrats satisfied; he grew up in Clarke,
knows pretty much everyone and has run as a Democrat for the
previous five terms. Roper’s family owned guns; he is a strong
believer in the Second Amendment, but it’s well known that he
doesn’t carry a gun on some of his calls. “I’m a talker,” he said,
before joking that he would have worn his gun if he’d known I
was going to ask about it.
Roper told me that when the gun-control legislation surfaced
in Richmond, constituents immediately started calling him to
express their concerns and ask his opinion. “I would simply say to
them: ‘First off, relax a little bit,’ ” Roper recalled, smiling and
holding his hands up. “ ‘But I will tell you that if the law passes, I
will absolutely enforce the law.’ ”