Judge Shuts Down Attempt From Oath Keeper Leader For Special Treatment

0
938

A federal judge has rejected a request for Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes to serve out his pretrial detention in Texas instead of Washington, D.C. Rhodes, along with nearly a dozen other individuals tied to his violent, far-right group, has been charged with seditious conspiracy for actions connected to the Capitol riot. Ahead of January 6, when the riot took place, Rhodes and others prepared for violence, including by obtaining large amounts of weaponry — some of which went to a stockpile that was assembled in the vicinity of D.C. for the potential usage of people in the capital.

Among the many other available examples of Rhodes’s preparations for violence, he said in a December 11, 2020, message that if Biden took his duly decided place as president, then “it will be a bloody and desperate fight. We are going to have a fight. That can’t be avoided.” Federal Judge Amit Mehta, who dealt with the request for Rhodes to fulfill his pretrial detention requirements in Texas, observed that “[it] is not unusual for locally detained January 6th defendants to have counsel who are not in the Washington, D.C. area,” adding that the “court will not grant Mr. Rhodes more favorable treatment than those similarly-situated defendants.” Part of the argument on Rhodes’s behalf was that it would be a burden on his legal representation to have to travel between Texas and D.C. while dealing with his case.

In previously ordering Rhodes to be held in detention ahead of his trial, which is scheduled (for now) to take place later this year, federal Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson concluded that releasing Rhodes could potentially allow him to flee from authorities. He’s been revealed to have apparently set up a tunnel system in his backyard for hypothetical escapes, and he’s also been said to have parked unregistered cars in wooded areas near his home. Johnson also observed how Rhodes had talked about “inciting a revolution or civil war” that “had the potential to be massively bloody” — meaning that he could potentially also pose a continued threat to the community if allowed out before his trial. Troublingly, Johnson also noted that Rhodes’s estranged ex-wife Tasha Adams “testified that [Rhodes’s] violence toward the family became more frequent in 2016 and that her greatest fear was that [he] would murder Ms. Adams and the children before committing suicide.”

Trump has now repeatedly raised the prospect of issuing pardons for Capitol rioters in the event that he wins the presidency again, and potentially, these comments from the ex-commander-in-chief could provide incentives to certain individuals to reject plea offers from prosecutors. Plea deals often include agreements for the individual(s) pleading guilty to provide information to authorities, so Trump’s rhetoric could make it more difficult for investigators dealing with these criminal acts to obtain pertinent information.