‘Oath Keepers’ leader Stewart Rhodes appears in a Collin County, Texas jail mugshot.
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia group accused of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is a “clear and convincing danger” who must stay behind bars pending trial, a second federal judge has ruled.
Rhodes, 56, has been in custody since his arrest in January, after a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Texas deemed him to be a “credible threat” to the public. Prosecutors say he has weapons caches and unregistered cars stashed in multiple locations, and that he saw Jan. 6—when hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Donald Trump supporters overran police at the U.S. Capitol to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election—as “an initial skirmish or battle in a larger war.”
Prosecutors say Rhodes and other Oath Keepers planned to bring years of military experience and a variety of weapons to support the pro-Trump mob, going so far as to prepare for ferrying a trove of firearms and other weapons across the Potomac.
“My observation at this point [is] if the conduct alleged is true, the danger that it poses cannot be [overstated],” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said at the start of the hearing, signaling his decision to keep Rhodes in detention.
Mehta said that the government hadn’t convinced him that Rhodes is a flight risk, but they won on their arguments that he posed a risk of future dangerousness to the general public. He pointed out that Rhodes spent thousands on weapons and other equipment on the way to D.C. ahead of Jan. 6, but then also made “substantial purchases” of weapons afterwards.
In support of his request to be released from jail, Rhodes has argued that the preparations and so-called “Quick Reaction Force,” or QRF, teams were merely protective measures in case Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.
Prosecutors also said Rhodes is a flight risk who could rely on a “broad network of followers” if he wanted to flee.
Rhodes had proposed being released into the custody of cousins in California, where he would stay in a “back house” on the property that reportedly doesn’t have internet access.
At a bond hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta appeared to be considering that option.
Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, had said that if he were to grant Rhodes’ release request, Rhodes would be under strict conditions, including 24-hour house arrest. He wouldn’t be allowed to access the internet, or leave the house to work at a job.
It would be, Mehta said, “about as strict as it gets without being behind bars … nothing that would resemble somebody having his ordinary freedoms.”
Tasha Adams, Rhodes’ estranged wife, told Law&Crime that she was “very nervous” that Rhodes may be released. Adams has said that she fears Rhodes, who she said has physically abused her and at least one of their kids, may take the couples’ six children.
Adams also told that the cousins in California can’t be relied upon to keep Rhodes in line.
“His potential custodians are avid Trump supporters,” she said in a text message. “The cousin live streamed Oath Keeper events. The parents are insane [R]epublicans who fully support Stewart in all his activities.”
Earlier on Friday, Mehta advanced three lawsuits seeking to hold former President Donald Trump liable for a variety of claims in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, including alleged violations of the Ku Klux Klan Act. The Oath Keepers, a co-defendant in that litigation, also lost a motion to dismiss the case.
Stewart Rhodes Must Stay Behind Bars Pending Trial: Judge (lawandcrime.com)
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