The estranged wife of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Tasha Adams, has shared images of Mr Rhodes’ “training hole” for his planned “elaborate” network of escape tunnels he allegedly was working to construct in his backyard.
A federal judge cited testimony from Ms Adams concerning the tunnels on Wednesday in a court order in which Mr Rhodes was denied bond. He has been charged with seditious conspiracy, as well as other crimes, in connection to his activities surrounding the insurrection on 6 January last year.
“Folks if you ever feel tempted to rent a backhoe and dig escape tunnels in the backyard of your rental house, keep in mind it may (come) back to haunt you if you later attempt to overthrow the US government,” Ms Adams wrote.
Ms Adams tweeted photos of the “training spider hole” at around 8pm on Thursday evening. She said she may have photos of the “elaborate” network of tunnels.
“This isn’t even the tunnel system I was talking about,” she tweeted concerning the testimony. “This was a training ‘spider hole”, less elaborate. I might have pics of the real thing somewhere, my daughters used them as a playhouse.”
Noting that it was a rental house, Ms Adams said the landlord thought the network of tunnels “wasn’t a bad idea”.
Mr Rhodes reportedly told the court that when he was arrested by the FBI on 13 January, he was living with his girlfriend, Oath Keepers acting director Kellye SoRelle. But she told BuzzFeed News that she’s not in a relationship with Mr Rhodes.
“Defendant reports he has resided in Granbury, Texas, with Ms SoRelle since May 2020. Defendant and Ms SoRelle reside in an apartment leased by Ms SoRelle,” court documents state.
BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger tweeted on Thursday evening that “I have reached SoRelle and she denies being in a relationship with Rhodes. She conjectures that he may have told the court that in a bid to get released to her house”.
“I think Stewart just wanted to have a place to stay,” Ms SoRelle wrote in a text, according to the reporter.
Ms Adams tweeted on Thursday morning that Mr Rhodes “had this ridiculous plan” for the tunnels, only about 25 per cent of which were finished. “The tunnels were supposed to go from the house to national forest, the car was to be on a logging road above. The hatch had this lid, he stapled gillie suits to it. Half the town knew about them.”
Ms Adams said the tunnels were “not very secret” and that there were six “adult witnesses to his stupid tunnels”.
She added that the images she shared were “right off one of Stewart’s memory cards. I cropped some because other people were in them”.
