FORT WORTH, Texas — Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers who was charged with seditious conspiracy in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will be held without bail until his trial, according to a decision Wednesday from Federal Magistrate Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson.
Johnson, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cited concerns that his release could endanger others. She said that while Rhodes has a right to peaceably assemble and petition, that’s not what he is accused of doing.
“Here, the Court is not faced with a peaceable assembly and petitioning, as Defendant’s extraordinary actions and the ripple effects that followed are outside the bounds of protected activities,” Johnson wrote in the order to deny bail.
