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WASHINGTON — Kellye SoRelle, the general counsel for the far-right organization the Oath Keepers, was arrested in Texas on Thursday after being indicted on four charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, the Justice Department said.
A federal grand jury indicted SoRelle on four counts: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. She has not been charged with seditious conspiracy, as other Oath Keepers have.
The indictment provides few details but alleges that she “did corruptly persuade and attempt to corruptly persuade other persons with intent to cause and induce such persons to (A) withhold records, documents, and other objects from an official proceeding, that is, the Grand Jury investigation into the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and (B) alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal objects with intent to impair the objects’ integrity and availability for use in such a Grand Jury investigation.”
SoRelle was on encrypted chats with members of the Oath Keepers, and the FBI had seized her phone last September. SoRelle was featured in the Jan. 6 committee hearings and spoke extensively to the committee.
SoRelle, who was a volunteer with Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election, previously told NBC News that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes had tried to get her to give him her contacts with former President Donald Trump’s team before the Jan. 6 attack.
Rhodes and other members of the Oath Keepers are facing charges of seditious conspiracy. One Oath Keeper who pleaded guilty to that charge, William Todd Wilson, told a judge that he heard Rhodes on the phone with someone in Trump’s orbit on the night of Jan. 6, telling the person to have Trump “call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose a transfer of power.”
During the call, according to Wilson, Rhodes tried to talk to Trump directly, but the person on the other end “denied Rhodes’ request to speak directly with President Trump.”
The Oath Keepers, including SoRelle, then headed to a suburban Olive Garden.
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