Oath Keepers Attorney Kellye SoRelle Indicted on 4 Obstruction-Related Jan. 6 Criminal Counts

Members of the Oath Keepers and other protestors at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Jim Bourg/Reuters

Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle was arrested Sept. 1 in Texas and charged with four federal counts related to alleged obstruction of the peaceful transfer of power from President Donald Trump to Joseph Biden Jr. in January 2021.

SoRelle, 43, was arrested in Junction, Texas, on a warrant from the District of Columbia.

Attorney Kellye SoRelle. LinkedIn

She was charged (pdf) with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, aiding and abetting the obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and obstruction of justice - tampering with documents.

Her indictment could throw a wrench into the Sept. 26 trial of Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III and several members and associates of the group. SoRelle was expected to be called as a defense witness to testify that there was no seditious conspiracy for the Oath Keepers to attack the Capitol or influence the counting of electoral votes.

Being under indictment could remove her from witness lists, said attorney Jonathon Moseley, who represented Rhodes before the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, and formerly represented Oath Keepers defendant Kelly Meggs. Moseley questioned the timing of SoRelle’s arrest.

Trial Delay Will be Needed

“The FBI interviewed her as early as May 2021,” Moseley told The Epoch Times. “So they wait until just before trial to deprive the Oath Keepers of another witness. Therefore, the Oath Keepers trial will have to be delayed from September, probably also from November.

“She can testify while she’s facing prosecution, but that’s not going to get worked out in three weeks,” Moseley said.

Federal judge Amit Mehta has rebuffed numerous defense motions to delay the trial. Most recently, attorney Brad Geyer told Judge Mehta he can’t properly prepare for trial because federal prosecutors are withholding exculpatory evidence that would benefit his client Kenneth Harrelson and other Oath Keepers defendants.

The Jan. 6 select committee has attempted to link former President Donald Trump to an alleged conspiracy with the Oath Keepers to keep Trump in power beyond inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.

SoRelle and Rhodes deny having any direct contact with Trump or being part of a conspiracy. They wrote him an open letter in December 2020 urging him to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would have allowed the use of militias to put down riots or protect buildings such as the White House from attacks by Antifa radicals.

Rhodes denied allegations by an Oath Keepers member that Rhodes tried to call Trump from a D.C. hotel on Jan. 6.

That assertion was contained in a plea agreement signed by William Todd Wilson, 45, of Newton Grove, North Carolina. Wilson pleaded guilty on May 4 to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official government proceeding—both felonies carrying sentences up to 20 years in prison.

Wilson told prosecutors he was in a room at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington D.C. in the late afternoon of Jan. 6. He claims Rhodes made a call to an unnamed person to “repeatedly implore the individual to tell Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power,” according to his plea agreement statement of offense (pdf).

Moseley said that never happened.

“Stewart Rhodes directly told me when asked specifically about this report that he completely denied the claim that he had tried to call Trump through an intermediary, directly or indirectly,” Moseley told The Epoch Times on May 9, 2022.

It is not clear if SoRelle will be tried along with members of the Oath Keepers or if she will stand trial alone.

Rhodes has frequently opined that prosecution of the Oath Keepers is part of a larger effort to bring down Trump and keep him off the ballot in November 2024.

Moseley said the conviction of Rhodes and other Oath Keepers would be viewed by some as a so-called “October Surprise” to help tip the mid-term elections to the Democrats.

“Stewart Rhodes has also said that he believes that the idea is to prepare the public for an indictment of Donald Trump before the November elections,” Moseley said.

SoRelle has handled legal matters for the Oath Keepers, and Latinos for Trump. From 2011 through 2017, she was assistant district attorney in Cameron County, Texas.