In a memo seeking the pretrial detention of Oath Keeper Ed Vallejo — one of 11 members of the group charged last week with seditious conspiracy to violently prevent Joe Biden from taking office — prosecutors provided new details about the weapons stockpile Oath Keepers had assembled at a Comfort Inn in nearby Arlington, Va.
Three “quick reaction force” teams set up at the hotel, prepared to ferry weapons into Washington to support the effort to prevent Congress from finalizing Biden’s victory. But the cache became “unnecessary,” prosecutors said, because the Oath Keepers at the Capitol — using the force of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the building — were able to get inside without additional support.
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Among them, prosecutors say, were “at least three luggage carts’ worth of gun boxes, rifle cases, and suitcases filled with ammunition.”
“A second QRF team from North Carolina consisted of four men who kept their rifles ready to go in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot,” according to the Justice Department. “Later, Vallejo and other members of the Arizona QRF team wheeled in bags and large bins of weapons, ammunition, and essential supplies to last 30 days.”
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[P]rosecutors say the Oath Keepers were prepared for a long-haul fight, one that stretched past Jan. 6 to the inauguration. Messages exchanged by Vallejo and others suggested the group cased the Capitol on Jan. 7 and discussed plans to continue working against the transfer of power up through Biden’s inauguration.
Politico
Vellejo appeared before Magistrate Judge John Boyle in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Thursday to make the case that he should be granted bond.
Vallejo’s attorney told Boyle her client was a 63-year-old man with asthma who has been free without incident for the past year before a federal grand jury indicted him earlier this month.
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Boyle said he took the defense’s arguments about Vallejo’s medical situation seriously, but that he saw no evidence of remorse from Vallejo at any point between the Capitol riot and the hearing. He also said he believed Vallejo only stayed in Virginia because he never got the call.
“I think if Mr. Rhodes had given that order, you would have complied,” Boyle said.
Boyle said he didn’t see Vallejo as a flight risk, and that he had considered GPS monitoring, but decided it wasn’t sufficient for Vallejo.
“I don’t think anybody – at your age of 63, with such strong beliefs as you have – can stop you from acting on them one way or another,” he said.
With that, Boyle ordered Vallejo held in custody while he awaits trial. He will be transported to the D.C. Jail, where the majority of other January 6 defendants in pretrial detention, including other Oath Keepers, are being held.
WUSA9
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