Edward Vallejo, an Oath Keeper indicted last week on charges of seditious conspiracy to prevent the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, has been ordered detained pending trial, Politico reports. A federal magistrate in Arizona found that the evidence against Vallejo, 63, showed that he presented an ongoing danger to society. Judge John Boyle said prosecutors presented compelling evidence that Vallejo was prepared to shuttle a large cache of firearms and other weaponry into Washington, D.C., to aid other the efforts of Oath Keepers to storm and occupy the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Vallejo oversaw the stockpile at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va., and stayed in contact with Oath Keeper leaders, including the national head, Stewart Rhodes, according to the indictment that charged both men.
Rhodes never ordered Vallejo to bring the weapons into Washington, prosecutors say, because the pro-Trump crowd managed to get inside the Capitol without them. "I think If Mr. Rhodes had given that order you would have complied," Boyle said. "You are a serious danger at this time." A federal public defender, Debbie Jang, urged Boyle to release Vallejo, emphasizing that prosecutors had known many of the details about his conduct for nearly a year but had allowed him to remain free. Federal pretrial services investigators recommended Vallejo’s release pending trial with strict conditions, such as GPS monitoring, the defense attorney noted.
“The government can’t have it both ways,” Jang said. “Either his words were so dangerous that he needed to be detained back then or his words were just words ….” Vallejo’s social media posting may have tipped the balance in favor of keeping him locked up pending trial. Prosecutors said that last month Vallejo threatened violence in a Twitter rant against the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus.
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