'You've done a lot of damage to this country'; Former Oath Keeper attorney sentenced to 1 year in prison

WASHINGTON (CN) — A lawyer who worked with the far-right militia group Oath Keepers to plan its part in the attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Friday to one year in prison.

Kellye SoRelle, 46, directed Oath Keepers to cease communications and delete messages related Jan. 6 plans, she admitted in her August 2024 guilty plea, copping to a felony obstruction charge for evidence tampering and to remaining on restricted grounds.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who previously sentenced Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, said SoRelle could have also faced the same charge — and was fortunate not to.

“You’ve done a lot of damage to this country,” Mehta said Friday. “That’s not something I can overlook.”

As Washington prepares for President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Monday, riot fencing and security checkpoints surrounded large portions of the city, including the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse where SoRelle was sentenced.

Alluding to the looming inauguration, Mehta said that despite SoRelle’s efforts to impede the peaceful transfer of power four years ago, the nation is days away from a peaceful transition.

SoRelle said in a brief, emotional statement that she regretted her actions, associating with Rhodes and the Oath Keepers and any harm she caused on Jan. 6.

She distanced herself from Rhodes, saying he manipulated her and took advantage of her mental health struggles, and likened him in her sentencing memorandum to a cult leader.

“I totally and emphatically reject ways to change the government other than the peaceful electoral process,” SoRelle said.

Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, said the fact that SoRelle was a former prosecutor and lawyer made her efforts to obstruct any future investigation into the group “shocks the conscience.”

“Not only is this a black mark on the profession, but a coda to the event of Jan. 6 that will hopefully not be forgotten anytime soon,” Mehta said, noting that SoRelle’s actions in part led to hundreds of people going to jail for their own deeds that day.

Pardons pending?

Though he’s been vague on details, Trump has signaled plans to issue pardons for Jan. 6 defendants when he takes office, saying he would consider them on a “case-by-case basis” and decrying the treatment of nonviolent defendants.

At a press conference on Jan. 8, Trump hinted that he may consider pardons for violent offenders, too.

Several high-profile defendants, such as Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in planning his far-right group’s role in the riot — have petitioned Trump directly.

Rhodes described himself as a nonviolent Jan. 6 defendant in an op-ed in the conservative Gateway Pundit Thursday and urged Trump to pardon all Jan. 6 defendants, including those who were convicted of assaulting police.

“I’m a nonviolent Jan. 6 political prisoner, serving an unjust 18-year sentence after I refused to plead guilty to crimes I didn’t commit (seditions conspiracy being the worst of several absurd false charges), and because I refused to bear witness against President Trump, and insisted on going to trial along with my brave co-defendants,” Rhodes wrote.

During the trial against Rhodes and his co-defendants, prosecutors revealed that the Oath Keepers created a “Quick Reaction Force” and stationed members at three locations in Maryland and Virginia: a Comfort Inn, a Hilton Garden Inn and an RV park.

Those at the Comfort Inn in Ballston, Virginia, searched for boats to transport firearms across the Potomac and bring them to the Capitol via the National Mall, according to prosecutors.

The hotel was also where SoRelle and Rhodes — who were dating at the time — stayed on Jan. 5, 2021.

On Jan. 6, SoRelle traveled with Rhodes to the northern side of the Capitol, where she messaged the other Oath Keepers in a Signal group chat named the “OKFL Hangout” that they were “acting like the Founding Fathers” and directed them to await orders from Rhodes.

She did not enter the Capitol building but livestreamed on Facebook from outside the building, she admitted.

Then, on Jan. 8, 2021, SoRelle and Rhodes directed other members in the Signal chat to begin deleting their messages related to the conspiracy to destroy potentially incriminating evidence.

SoRelle initially pleaded not guilty. Her case was frozen after Mehta found her mentally incompetent to stand trial in June 2023. The judge declared her competence restored in July 2024 after a two-and-a-half-month evaluation while in Federal Bureau of Prisons custody.

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