A lawyer who advised members of the far-right Oath Keepers to delete their text messages after their leaders’ role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol pleaded guilty Wednesday to obstructing federal investigators.
Kellye SoRelle, who was romantically involved with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, admitted to advising others in the group to destroy evidence. She also pleaded guilty to being on the Capitol grounds during the riots, even though she did not enter the building.
SoRelle’s plea ends a years-long saga, including several months in which U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta determined whether she was competent to stand trial or could enter a voluntary plea. He ultimately ruled that she had knowingly admitted to her crimes. SoRelle is scheduled to be sentenced in January and is likely to serve several months to a year in prison.
Rhodes, a former Capitol Hill staffer who studied at Yale, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, and the group became a ubiquitous presence at civil war sites across the country, ostensibly to provide security. But members described the group’s sharp turn toward extremism, which intensified during the Trump years.
About two dozen members of the Oath Keepers traveled to Washington, D.C., ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress to provide security details for speakers at pro-Trump events, including a speech then-President Donald Trump delivered to a large crowd near the White House. But prosecutors say those details obscured their true purpose: violently preventing the transition of power from Trump to Joe Biden.
About nine members of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, have been convicted of seditious conspiracy, the most serious charges against members of the Jan. 6 gang. A handful of Proud Boys leaders also faced seditious conspiracy charges.
SoRelle, who appeared relaxed in court, was mentioned repeatedly during Rhodes’ 2022 trial for her role in advising him and others in the group. She traveled with Rhodes to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3, 2021, stopping along the way while Rhodes purchased $20,000 worth of firearms-related equipment.
SoRelle also testified before the January 6 commission about her involvement with the group.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, sitting just outside Mehta’s courtroom, upheld the pre-trial detention of John Banuelos, a suspect charged in the Jan. 6 shooting who prosecutors say was carrying a gun and firing twice into the air.
Although Banuelos argued that the shots were intended to celebrate and not to cause harm, Chutkan pointed to his extensive criminal history and argued that handling a firearm during the riots was “inherently” dangerous.
“This could have been much, much worse,” Chutkan said.
