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“He never provided services for FedEx and won’t be in the future,” a FedEx corporate official, who requested his name not be published to speak candidly, told Raw Story on Monday afternoon.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