On January 13, leader of the Oath Keepers militia group and several others were charged for a “coordinated attack on the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 of last year.”Access to case documents concerning Oath Keeper members, like Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer, have been granted. Schaffer had recently gotten a plea deal for his involvement.

Then, on January 14, the ‘United States of America vs. Jon Schaffer,’ a motion on the disclosure of the documents, was granted, along with the charges against Stewart Rhodes, Donovan Crowl and Jonathan Walden (all members of Oath Keeper). It applies to the disclosure of the documents “to any co-defendants who may later be joined.”

Rhodes, is the founder of the Oath Keepers, a far right group whose members include military and law enforcement members. Schaffer, is a founding member of the organization. He even has a hat that says, “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,” giving away his devotion to the group.

Charges were made against the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys because of their attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.

Schaffer was one of the first people to breach the capital door on January 6, 2021. This lead to him eventually being sprayed in the face with an irritant. Despite his lawyer claiming he was only in the building for 60 seconds, there have been reports that he was allegedly there for up to 9 minutes. There is video of Schaffer breaking in, along with a mob backing him.

After being charged with six crimes, a plea deal for Schaffer was reached on April 16, 2021. He plead guilty to the following charges “obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress (punishable by up to 20 years in prison) and trespassing on restricted grounds of the Capitol while armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon (punishable by up to 10 years in prison).”

Then, Schaffer was released on bail on April 22, 2021.

Schaffer was one of the 31 people named in a lawsuit, having to do with the capital breaching, by the Washington D.C. Attorney General.