U.S. prosecutors leveled new accusations Friday towards the chief of the Oath Keepers and alleged members who’ve been charged with seditious conspiracy within the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, saying one co-conspirator got here to Washington with explosives and detailing allegations {that a} co-defendant saved a “dying checklist” with the identify of a Georgia election official.
Washington, D.C
Alleged Oath Keeper accused of bringing explosives to D.C. on Jan. 6
The allegations got here days earlier than the Jan. 6 Home committee is about to carry its subsequent listening to Tuesday, which is anticipated to discover connections between extremist teams accused of taking part in key roles within the violence on the Capitol and former president Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election by way of false claims of voter fraud.
In a 28-page submitting, prosecutors mentioned a legislation enforcement search on Jan. 19, 2021, of the house of charged co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va., recovered a doc that included the phrases “DEATH LIST” handwritten throughout the highest with the identify of a Georgia election official and a purported member of the family of the official. Each had been targets of baseless accusations that they had been concerned in voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors mentioned.
“That Caldwell made and saved a ‘dying checklist’ that features officers concerned within the presidential election course of — contemporaneous together with his preparation to journey to Washington, D.C. — illustrates his actions in the course of the alleged conspiracy and intent to oppose by power the switch of energy,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Troy A. Edwards Jr. of Washington wrote, referring to the seditious conspiracy cost towards Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and eight others together with Caldwell.
On Friday night, Caldwell lawyer David Fischer forwarded an announcement from his shopper rejecting the allegation, which prosecutors first raised in arguing for Caldwell’s pretrial detention in February 2021. A decide has since granted Caldwell conditional launch.
“The DOJ’s declare that I meant to assassinate election employees is an absolute, 100% disgusting lie. Sadly, the DOJ has withheld from the general public the proof that exonerates me by hiding behind protecting orders,” the assertion mentioned.
Individually, Edwards mentioned the federal government has proof that members of the group from Florida and Arizona allegedly staged semiautomatic rifles and different weapons in a suburban Washington lodge whereas a 3rd workforce from North Carolina saved their firearms “able to go” in a car within the parking zone.
The prosecutor claimed that one other Rhodes co-defendant, purported Florida “state lead” Kelly Meggs, had advised a cooperating defendant who has pleaded responsible in a cooperation cope with the federal government that one other Florida member of the group, Jeremy Brown, got here to Washington with explosives in his leisure car, which he left parked in Faculty Park, Md. Brown, who has pleaded not responsible to the misdemeanor Jan. 6 counts, will not be charged within the seditious conspiracy indictment however was described by prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
The federal government final September allegedly seized weapons from Brown, together with two unlawful short-barreled firearms from his residence in Tampa and navy grenades from “the identical RV that Brown used to journey to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6,” the prosecutor asserted.
Standby counsel for Brown — a retired Particular Forces soldier and onetime congressional candidate who’s defending himself however has been detained pending trial on separate federal weapons costs in Florida — didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The newest U.S. allegations had been contained in a court docket submitting required as a result of prosecutors search to introduce derogatory proof on the Oath Keepers scheduled Sept. 26 trial that’s not instantly associated to their charged offenses. Federal prison guidelines normally bar such extraneous materials however make an exception for related data that allegedly reveals motive, the intent of a wider charged conspiracy or is in any other case “intrinsic” to a case.
Prosecutors asserted that the defendants face costs together with conspiracy to corruptly impede Congress’s certification of the 2020 election outcomes and to oppose President Biden’s swearing-in by power. Charging papers allege that the group coordinated journey, tools and firearms and stashed weapons exterior Washington, prepared “to reply Rhodes’ name to take up arms at Rhodes’ course.”
“Caldwell’s travels to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6, as evidenced by his statements, had been knowledgeable by a perception that the election was fraudulent and that the lawful switch of presidential energy should be thwarted by power. His writings focusing on election employees are instantly related up to now,” Edwards mentioned.
Edwards added: “Brown’s statements, firearms, and explosives are intrinsic to the co-conspirators’ charged offense as contemporaneous, direct proof of the way and means utilized by the co-conspirators to advance the objectives of the charged conspiracy.”
In plea papers, three Oath Keepers defendants who’ve pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy costs admitted to allegations that they had been amongst a bunch that pressured entry by way of the Rotunda doorways after marching single file in a stack up the steps carrying camouflage vests, helmets, goggles and Oath Keepers insignia. They acknowledged some introduced rifles to Washington that had been stashed beforehand at a Ballston lodge and one in Vienna.
Rhodes, Caldwell and the remaining co-defendants have pleaded not responsible. Rhodes in an interview with The Washington Publish in March 2021 mentioned there was no plan to breach the Capitol. He has mentioned the group staged firearms in Northern Virginia in case it was wanted as a “fast response power” if Trump invoked the Riot Act and mobilized armed teams to maintain himself in workplace. Rhodes’s lawyer declined to remark Friday night time concerning the authorities’s newest allegations.
The assault on the Capitol got here after a rally exterior the White Home, at which Trump urged his supporters to march to Congress. The rioters injured scores of law enforcement officials and ransacked Capitol places of work, halting the proceedings as lawmakers had been evacuated from the Home ground.
Individually, an lawyer for Rhodes mentioned he contacted the Home Jan. 6 committee earlier Friday providing to testify earlier than it given that he be allowed to seem stay, in-person and unedited, not from jail the place he’s in pretrial custody.
Rhodes “will not be taken with any video games,” lawyer Lee Vibrant mentioned, and would discuss his group’s actions within the final election and on Jan. 6, waiving his Fifth modification rights towards self-incrimination. Vibrant mentioned the committee seems to be contemplating Rhodes’s circumstances acknowledged, as a sensible matter, that such an look would in all probability possible a court docket order from the decide, enter from prosecutors in his prison case and transport by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Washington, D.C
Families of D.C. plane crash victims urge Congress to do more on air traffic control reform
Family members of the victims of American Airlines flight 5342 — which collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Washington, D.C., in January — are urging Congress to do more to address the nation’s aging air traffic control system.
As the Senate aims to vote on President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill ahead of the president’s July 4 deadline, some advocates — including relatives of people killed in the American Airlines crash — say the current funding in the mega-bill is just the beginning of what is needed to overhaul the antiquated airspace system.
“We are very aware that [the funding] is a down payment only,” Amy Hunter, cousin to Peter Livingston, who died in the Jan. 29 crash alongside his wife and two daughters, told CBS News. A total of 67 people died in the collision over the Potomac River, including American Airlines passengers and crew as well as the Black Hawk crew members.
“We have been assured that they understand, and the administration understands, that it has to be followed up basically immediately with the completion of funding for this project,” Hunter said.
As it stands, the Senate’s version of the legislation — known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — dedicates $12.5 billion to modernizing the air traffic control system. A version passed by the House last month also allocated $12.5 billion to transition from copper wires to fiber optics, buy new radios and build new radar systems in air traffic control facilities nationwide.
This funding is just a fraction of what experts say is needed to completely overhaul the antiquated national airspace system. A coalition of industry groups and airlines has said at least $31 billion is needed for the overhaul.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been clear-eyed that completely overhauling the national airspace system will require more funding.
“So $12.5 billion is really important. That gives us a start to build this project, which is why I aggressively support the big beautiful Bill. But it’s not enough. Again, we need more money,” Duffy said in a May press conference.
The administration’s plans to completely rebuild the air traffic control system include replacing outdated communication technologies, installing new software systems and building six new air traffic control centers for the first time since the 1960s.
The White House has not provided a price tag for what the overhaul would cost, but said they hope to complete the project within four years.
But for the families of AA5342 victims, more action is needed to address the nation’s air traffic control system, particularly in the crowded airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where a National Transportation Safety Board review found there were over 15,214 close calls between 2011 and 2024.
The advocates have called for an independent safety review of that airspace, which can be enacted by Congress or asked for by Duffy.
Additionally, several family members of victims told CBS News the Army has not spoken with their family about the crash, which was the deadliest airline accident in the U.S. since November 2001. CBS News has reached out to the Army for comment, but has not received a response.
“We are grieving families and we are advocates, but we are Americans. We benefit from a strong prepared military and that’s what we want to make sure of,” Rachel Feres, another cousin of the Livingston family, said.
Families say they aren’t looking for blame and want to look forward, but they feel that they shouldn’t be the only advocates for making the nation’s skies safer.
“We know it’s a very long path. For clarity, we think that it shouldn’t be a requirement that the families are involved. We should be able to grieve in private,” Hunter said. “That is not a reality of today.”
A 73-year-old man with dementia has been missing for three days during this punishing heat wave, and a frantic search is underway.
For years, retired truck driver Frankie Jones Sr. fixed cars for neighbors in Southwest D.C., letting people pay him what they could for his work. Now, a missing person flyer is on every door of the Galveston Street SW apartment complex where Jones lives with his fiancée and family members who love and care for him.
Jones walked out the front door Tuesday at 4 p.m. and didn’t return.
He often went to the parking lot to tinker with the family cars — an ability he retains as he struggles with cognitive decline, said his daughter Julia Marsh.
“We don’t know what direction he went in, so we’re just really trying to figure out if he’s in this area somewhere, in the woods somewhere,” she said. “Maybe he’s somewhere lost, don’t know how to find his way back.”
The family has searched everywhere they can think of, including nearby auto parts stores and car repair shops. Places they think Jones would be drawn to.
They worry about him being out there alone and likely confused in the scorching, potentially deadly heat.
“It’s been hot for the past few days, a hundred degrees, and we still don’t know where he is,” his daughter said. “This is not like him. It’s not like him to walk away and not return.”
Jones stands 5-feet-11-inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a light blue shirt, blue jeans and black-and-white slides.
Anyone who sees Jones should call the D.C. police Real Time Crime Center at (202) 727-9099. If he appears to be in danger, call 911.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) — A D.C. teen has been charged with first-degree murder after using his car to ram into a man, rob him and attempt to access his bank accounts from an ATM, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Kyree Young, 17, followed the victim, Donnel Bracket Phillips, 55, from an ATM near the intersection of 12th Street and U Street NW on May 7 around 4:15 a.m.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Man killed in NW DC hit-and-run linked to two early morning robberies, police say
Young hit Phillips with his white Hyundai Santa Fe before robbing him, according to court documents. He then attempted to get access to Phillips’s financial accounts at the same ATM that Philips was using moments prior.
When Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers got to the scene, they found Phillips lying in the roadway. He was unconscious and not breathing.
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Phillips was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately died from his injuries.
Young’s vehicle was later found and detectives gathered enough evidence to identify him as the suspect. On Wednesday, Young appeared before Superior Court Magistrate Judge Robert J. Hildum, who found probable cause that Young committed first-degree murder while armed and ordered him to be held without bond as he waits for trial.
The case is being investigated by MPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Division.
U.S. Attorney Pirro also said they are investigating potential accomplices to Young.
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