WASHINGTON — A Texas attorney involved with the Oath Keepers militia is scheduled for sentencing next week with federal prosecutors seeking a prison term exceeding a year. The lawyer, Kellye SoRelle, 45, from Granbury, pled guilty in October to charges that include one count of obstructing an official proceeding and one misdemeanor related to unauthorized entry into restricted areas.
SoRelle, a former Republican candidate for the Texas House of Representatives and the general counsel of the Oath Keepers, was charged in what has become the largest Capitol riot case handled by the government to date. Prosecutors have implicated roughly two dozen individuals connected to the militia, noting SoRelle’s significant role within the group.
On January 6, while SoRelle did not enter the Capitol, she accompanied Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes around the Capitol grounds. In the days leading to the riot, she was in communication with Rhodes, who was urging then-President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in a bid to prevent President Joe Biden from assuming office.
According to prosecutors, SoRelle acted as a critical conduit of information, relaying messages from Rhodes to fellow members of the Oath Keepers while he deliberately kept his communication devices off to evade law enforcement surveillance. Among the tactics she employed was instructing her peers via a messaging app to eliminate all evidence of their involvement in the January 6 activities. She underscored the necessity of deleting any incriminating or culpable information from their communications.
Initially set to stand trial alongside two other members of the militia later in 2023, SoRelle’s case experienced delays after she was found incompetent to stand trial following assessments by independent evaluators hired by her defense and the prosecution. After receiving mental health treatment from the Bureau of Prisons, she was restored to competency and pled guilty shortly after the decision.
Prosecutors have recommended a 16-month prison sentence for SoRelle, highlighting her premeditated and ideologically driven offenses related to the Capitol breach. They argue that her actions were far from impulsive; rather, they were part of a broader calculated effort by the militia in anticipation of January 6 events. The prosecution’s memo emphasized SoRelle’s apparent lack of remorse and her attempts to downplay her involvement in obstructive activities.
SoRelle is represented by Horatio Aldredge IV of the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Texas. As of the latest updates, her defense had yet to submit their sentencing memorandum.
Her cohort, Stewart Rhodes, was earlier convicted of seditious conspiracy among other charges for his role in a plot to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power, resulting in an 18-year prison sentence handed down earlier this year.
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