Court documents released Wednesday accuse members of the Oath Keepers group of stockpiling weapons in an Arlington, Virginia, hotel ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In the filings released Wednesday to support the detention of Oath Keepers member Edward Vallejo, federal prosecutors said group members from around the country brought rifles, ammunition and other "tactical" items to maintain a siege of some kind for about 30 days.
Vallejo, 63, of Phoenix, was charged along with 10 other members of the group with seditious conspiracy and other charges in an unsealed indictment by a federal grand jury, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Along with Vallejo, the indictment also charged the group's founder and leader, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, 56, of Granbury, Texas, with seditious conspiracy relating to the Jan. 6 riot.
Rhodes was arrested Jan. 13 in Little Elm, Texas, and Vallejo in Phoenix, according to the agency.
In seeking to keep Vallejo detained, the court documents outlined the group's plans to bring weapons to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to the documents, members brought weapons and ammunition from various parts of the country, including Florida and Arizona, to a Comfort Inn hotel in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from the nation's capital.
The groups each brought weapons and tactical gear to the hotel, according to the documents, and planned to deploy them at the Capitol if Congress went through with ratifying the results of the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.
The documents said the group had been planning the action since December 2020 and wanted to disrupt the joint session of Congress and did not deploy the weapons and gear that day because they breached the building with the people they had.
Five people died during and in the immediate aftermath of the riot, including Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol Police officer, and officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered a stroke and died the next day.
Federal prosecutors allege Vallejo continued to plan to disrupt Biden’s inauguration in the days immediately following the riot and was prepared to use the arsenal at the hotel if necessary.
"Vallejo, in his own words and actions, was prepared to use force against the government of the United States of America and there is nothing to suggest that he has changed his views," the motion to keep Vallejo detained said.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 725 people from all 50 states in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
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