WASHINGTON — A top lawyer with the Oath Keepers militia group was arrested Thursday on charges that she participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and conspired with others to obstruct certification of the 2020 election.
Kellye SoRelle, 43, is the latest person affiliated with the group to be indicted in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and several co-defendants are set to stand trial later this month for seditious conspiracy, the most serious crime charged against Capitol riot participants.
She is not facing a seditious conspiracy charge, but the most serious of the three felony counts in her indictment carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Besides the charges directly related to the attack, she’s also accused of trying to interfere with the criminal investigation that followed. SoRelle was set to make her first appearance later Thursday in federal court in Austin, Texas.
A lawyer in Texas with ties to various pro-Trump organizations, SoRelle was present at a videotaped meeting on Jan. 5, 2021, in a D.C. parking garage between Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, the former chair of the Proud Boys extremist group; Tarrio also faces a seditious conspiracy charge. She was reportedly with Rhodes on the grounds outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and is charged with a misdemeanor count for illegally being in a restricted area that day.
She remained involved with the Oath Keepers but hasn’t represented Rhodes or any other members charged in connection with Jan. 6.
Rhodes has been in jail since he was arrested in January, and SoRelle told Rolling Stone at the time that she was serving as the Oath Keepers’ “acting” president. Last year, HuffPost reported that she confirmed that the FBI had executed a search warrant to seize her cellphone.
