Oath Keeper to remain jailed after wife says he installed ‘elaborate escape tunnels in backyard’

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes will remain behind bars pending trial on charges including seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol insurrection.

A federal magistrate judge in Texas on Thursday issued a 17-page order denying Rhodes's request to be released from jail to live with a third-party custodian while awaiting trial.

"The evidence shows Defendant orchestrated a large-scale attack on the federal government with the purpose of intimidating, by violence, federal officials and disrupting official governmental proceedings incident to the transfer of power in the Executive Branch following a national election," Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson wrote. "Defendant’s authoritative role in the conspiracy, access to substantial weaponry, and ability to finance any future insurrection, combined with his continued advocacy for violence against the federal government, gives rise to a credible threat that Defendant's release might endanger others by fostering the planning and execution of additional violent events."

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The judge also cited testimony from Rhodes' estranged wife, Tasha Adams, who said she fears for the safety of herself and their six children if he is released. Adams said Rhodes would often brandish a firearm in their home "to control her behavior." She also accused him of abusing their children under the guise of "martial arts practice," including choking their daughter.

"Ms. Adams also testified to Defendant's fear of being 'picked up by the feds,'" the judge wrote. "According to Ms. Adams, during the time they were married, Defendant installed elaborate escape tunnels in the couple's backyard, hid unregistered cars in the woods, and purchased hundreds of dollars of razor wire, which Defendant intended to install around the perimeter of the property, concealed from view, 'in case the feds ever came to his door.'"

Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale Law graduate who is one of 11 members of the Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, pleaded not guilty earlier this week. He has been detained since his Jan. 13 arrest by the FBI.