Kellye SoRelle, former lawyer for the Oath Keepers militia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to advising members of the far-right group to illegally delete their text messages after the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, SoRelle, admitted to charges that included tampering with evidence and illegally entering and remaining in a restricted area of the Capitol grounds, the New York Times reports. SoRelle had a romantic relationship with the militia’s leader and founder, Stewart Rhodes, who was found guilty at a trial in Washington of seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
During Rhodes’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he and SoRelle worked closely for weeks organizing the Oath Keepers to descend on Washington on Jan. 6. The evidence also showed that SoRelle also was present at a mysterious meeting in an underground parking garage near the Capitol on the day before the attack where Rhodes met with Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, another far-right group instrumental in the violence. On Jan. 6 itself, SoRelle accompanied Rhodes to the Capitol, though neither entered the building. Still, court papers say that after the building was stormed and dozens of Oath Keepers came under scrutiny by federal investigators, SoRelle advised Rhodes and other members of the group to delete encrypted messages from their cellphones. After she was charged, however, SoRelle sought to avoid trial by asserting that she was mentally incompetent.
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