WASHINGTON — The attorney for former Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle said Thursday he plans to contest a finding by the Bureau of Prisons that she is now competent to stand trial on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
SoRelle, an attorney and former Republican candidate for the Texas House of Representatives, was one of approximately two dozen people with links to the Oath Keepers militia charged as part of the government’s largest Jan. 6 case to date. She was indicted in September 2022 on felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction for allegedly instructing members of the Oath Keepers, led by her then-boyfriend Stewart Rhodes, to destroy evidence after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. SoRelle, who also served as counsel for Latinos for Trump, was on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 with Rhodes but did not enter the building.
SoRelle had been scheduled to go to trial last year with two other defendants, Donovan Crowl and James Beeks, but her appearance was derailed after separate evaluators hired by both her attorney and federal prosecutors determined she was not competent to stand trial. In June, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered SoRelle, who had been on pretrial release until that point, into the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for competency restoration.
SoRelle officially reported to the BOP on Nov. 27 and was assigned to FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. During a hearing Thursday, Mehta summarized the results of a recent report to the court from officials at Carswell.
“She is now competent to stand trial,” he said.
SoRelle’s attorney, Horatio Aldridge, said he planned to contest the BOP’s findings and asked for time to have an evaluator who previously examined SoRelle conduct a follow-up report. Mehta agreed, saying he expected the evaluation to be conducted promptly.
Mehta also said Thursday he would order SoRelle released from the Bureau of Prisons and returned to her previous conditions of supervision. They include, among other things, a prohibition against contact with members of the Oath Keepers who could be involved in the investigation.
SoRelle’s former boyfriend, Rhodes, was convicted at trial in November 2022 of seditious conspiracy and numerous other charges and sentenced last year to 18 years in prison. More than a dozen other members of the group have also been convicted at trial of charges ranging from entering a restricted building to seditious conspiracy, including one of Rhodes’ top lieutenants, Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Beeks, a Broadway actor who was initially scheduled to go to trial with SoRelle, was acquitted by Mehta last year following a stipulated bench trial. Crowl, the other co-defendant who was supposed to go to trial alongside her, was convicted on two felony counts and was scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27.
Mehta did not immediately set a new trial schedule for SoRelle, but indicated he intended for it to happen on an expedited basis.