A judge let this Jan. 6 defendant deliver his FedEx route. But FedEx says he doesn’t work there.

William Beals, who breached the U.S. Capitol and later teamed up with neo-Nazis to harass drag shows, is out on bond while facing Jan. 6-related charges.

But Raw Story has learned that Beals’ employment situation — a major reason he’s free to cross state lines pending trial — is not as he described it under oath four days ago.

During his initial appearance in federal court in Knoxville, Tenn. on Aug. 25, Beals told Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook via a video link from the Hamilton County Detention Center in Chattanooga that he is driving a FedEx delivery route in northern Georgia. She set his conditions of release to allow him to travel between the two states while awaiting trial.

RELATED ARTICLE: Charges filed against neo-Nazi ally who harassed drag shows and attacked the U.S. Capitol

A spokesperson for FedEx told Raw Story that Beals was under evaluation by an independent contractor that provides ground delivery services for FedEx in the Chattanooga, Tenn. area, but that he ultimately was not hired and has no association with FedEx.

“He never provided services for FedEx and won’t be in the future,” a FedEx corporate official, who requested his name not be published to speak candidly, told Raw Story on Monday afternoon. “That independent contractor cut ties with him.”

The FedEx official declined to elaborate on when the independent contractor severed the relationship with Beals.

Reached by phone by Raw Story on Tuesday morning, Beals responded with an expletive-laden tirade. He declined to comment on his employment situation or testimony during his court appearance.

RELATED ARTICLE: Revealed: Feds banned this violent J6er from nuclear plants — but they still haven’t arrested him

After being sworn in for his initial appearance in Knoxville, Tenn., last week, the 52-year-old Beals told McCook that he has no mental or physical health issues, and she declared him competent to go forward with the court proceeding. McCook also found that Beals qualifies for public representation and appointed an assistant federal defender to represent him.

Beals then told McCook that he works for FedEx. He said he worked “from the Chattanooga office” in Tennessee and then drives back to Georgia “to do a FedEx route through Blairsville.”

McCook said she “would be comfortable with Mr. Beals continuing in his current employment,” and a prosecutor told the court that the government had “no issue with that travel either.”

William Beals in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021. Photo courtesy of Sedition Hunters

Beals has previously acknowledged that he has a criminal record for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, and he has a documented history of harassing people at drag shows across Tennessee during the past nine months. Beals previously worked as a union carpenter, and in June 2021, the Tennessee Valley Authority banned him from its facilities, citing his “unauthorized access to the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

The government did not seek pre-trial detention for Beals during his appearance before McCook, although the judge noted that he has a record of prior convictions. McCook said during the hearing that she does have some concerns about Beals’ history of violence, but that his case did not rise to the level of requiring pre-trial detention, which is typically based on flight risk and danger to the community.

Rachelle Barnes, a public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, told Raw Story that her office has “no comment” after being informed that FedEx — contrary to Beals’ testimony in court on Aug. 25 — said Beals does not work for the company as an employee or contractor.

Beals waived an identity hearing in the Eastern District of Tennessee, and a prosecutor from the U.S Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Tennessee told the court that his next court appearance will be a preliminary hearing in the District of Columbia, where his case originated, on Sept. 5.

McCook said Beals would be required to notify the federal probation office if anything changed with the FedEx delivery route Beals said he had.

McCook further admonished Beals that he should contact his lawyer or probation officer if he has any questions about the conditions of his release.

The judge told Beals that if he has to come back to court because he violated the conditions of his release, “the excuse, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know that violated my conditions,’ as you might imagine — that won’t win the day.”

“I was raised on that old-school tradition,” Beals told the judge.

“I believe you are a man of your word,” McCook told Beals.

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A GOP lawmaker went on a profane Thursday tirade insisting that disability benefits for veterans needed to be cut because they were "encouraging victimhood."

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a retired Navy SEAL, unloaded on the Veterans of Foreign Wars in a post on X after House Republicans were forced to pull a veterans' benefits bill from the floor Thursday.

The VFW had urged Congress to vote against the bill, helping to sink it.

Republicans pulled the Take Care of America's Veterans Act after narrowly defeating a Democratic effort to force major revisions to the proposal, 211-210, according to Politico.

"Congrats to the self-serving VFW!" Crenshaw wrote on X, "They convinced a small handful of Republicans to side with Democrats to f— over combat wounded veterans and surviving spouses."

In his post, Crenshaw argued that conditions like sleep apnea and tinnitus should not qualify for disability benefits at all.

"For context, losing a limb in battle was rated at 30% when I was leaving service," he added.

The bill's centerpiece was the Major Richard Star Act, which would have boosted retirement pay for about 50,000 combat-injured veterans, Politico reported.

To pay for it, the bill would have cut disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea — changes expected to save about $57 billion over a decade and affect up to 1.5 million veterans, according to the VFW.

"A grateful nation pays its debts to veterans; it does not send them the invoice," VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore said in a statement.

Veterans advocacy group VoteVets wrote on X on Tuesday that Republicans "say they love veterans, but when it comes to protecting the benefits earned through our service…they betray us."

In Crenshaw's Thursday post, he also took aim at veterans' service organizations broadly.

"Too many VSOs — veterans service organizations — are relics, encouraging victim hood and stupid policy that hurts veterans and the taxpayer," he added.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the bill would be delayed "several weeks" while leadership considered next steps, Politico reported.

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With the midterm election just over the horizon, a former close adviser to Donald Trump recalled that in 2018, when faced with his declining popularity just weeks before the midterms, the president "seemed mentally unwell" — and then it got "weird."

Miles Taylor, who served as DHS Chief of Staff, has now revealed the disturbing extent of Trump's paranoia during his first term. Writing on his Substack, Taylor recounted how the president became increasingly obsessed with rooting out leaks, eventually proposing an extraordinary and potentially illegal solution: wiretapping members of his own staff.

As Trump's popularity waned and his frustration mounted, he grew convinced that his inner circle was undermining him. The obsession consumed him, according to Taylor, who described Trump as increasingly willing to disregard legal and constitutional constraints.

The situation reached a breaking point during a clandestine meeting Taylor attended in rural Virginia in October 2018 where he surrendered his phones as was customary. He then discovered, "Donald Trump, I was told, had queried a White House staff member about the possibility of wiretapping his own appointees."

Taylor recalled Trump felt "he was being critiqued behind his back and who was leaking bad stories about him."

"He raised the idea with the aide and, from what I know, was gently waved off — treated as if he’d said it by accident. A passing dark thought better left unacknowledged," he wrote. "Yet it didn’t take long before rattled advisers began quietly sharing the information with trusted confidants. Beware: the president wants to wiretap us."

According Taylor, after the rumor spread, White House insiders were "rattled" and paranoid that "Trump had found someone willing to break the law for him and spin up wiretaps."

The former Trump administration official stated that his experience should serve as a warning to current White House staffers in light of the fact that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel "orchestrated a sprawling leak investigation at the White House last week."

Laura Benanti, known for her recurring Melania Trump impersonation on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, got doxxed by MAGA loyalists who leaked her home address, The Daily Beast reported.

She described what happened and shared some creepy details about the incident involving her driver on The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi podcast, explaining that the MAGA followers had circulated her personal information in "a threatening email blast."

"This right-wing psychopath sent an email blast to all of his people, being like, 'Hey'—not only my impression, but things I had said and political organizations I was a part of—and he was like, 'Let her know what you think of her.' And then put my f------ address," Benanti said.

She revealed that the leak prompted serious safety concerns for her family.

"I had to literally move," she said.

"We had to move from our apartment that we owned into a rental, and then the pandemic happened. We moved to New Jersey. So we were paying f------ rent and a mortgage," Benanti added. "Someone took a picture of me walking my daughter to school."

Benanti even considered not returning to the show over the threats, saying that if she knew what might have happened she wouldn't have done the impersonation.

"I don't think I would have done it," she said.

She detailed how she discovered the doxxing.

"I had a driver who also did security," she said. "And he was MAGA… He was a part of this newsletter—he received emails from this guy!"

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