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“He never provided services for FedEx and won’t be in the future,” a FedEx corporate official, who requested his name not be published to speak candidly, told Raw Story on Monday afternoon.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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President Donald Trump's White House is looking to negotiate on Department of Homeland Security reforms to resolve the stalled funding bill as Senate Democrats' front against a blank check for more Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids has all but guaranteed a partial government shutdown at the end of the week, Politico reported on Thursday.

"The two sides haven’t yet reached an agreement, according to a person granted anonymity to describe the private discussions," said the report. "The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the person with knowledge of the discussions characterized them as 'ongoing and moving in Democrats’ direction.'"

Democrats are calling for the DHS funding bill be removed from the six-bill package to be voted on today, pass the other five, then pass a short-term stopgap DHS funding bill while negotiations proceed on a longer-term funding deal that includes reforms in response to the brutal federal crackdown in places like Minneapolis.

Among other things, they want a unified code of conduct for federal agents, judicial warrant requirements for immigration arrests, and requirements that ICE stop wearing masks and use body cameras.

The White House has so far not budged on any of those specific demands, at least publicly — but is moving toward the procedural moves Democrats want to mitigate a shutdown and buy time to make a deal.

According to Politico congressional reporter Meredith Lee Hill in an accompanying post on X, "How quickly the partial shutdown could end is largely up to House — which isn’t back until Monday. But WH and Dems are in last-ditch talks to head off another extended shutdown + Republicans have privately noted Trump really doesn’t want another shutdown."

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President Donald Trump hammered an early morning screed attacking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

The central bank held interest rates steady on Wednesday despite Trump's public pressure on Powell – who claims a criminal probe against him by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is part of that pressure campaign – and the 79-year-old president raged against the chairman in a 284-word rant.

"Jerome 'Too Late' Powell again refused to cut interest rates, even though he has absolutely no reason to keep them so high," Trump posted Thursday morning on Truth Social. "He is hurting our Country, and its National Security. We should have a substantially lower rate now that even this moron admits inflation is no longer a problem or threat."

Trump declared this week that inflation was "solved," but Powell said that interest rates would remain steady to "finish the job of getting inflation back down to 2 percent," after hovering between 3 percent in September and 2.7 percent in November and December.

"He is costing America Hundreds of Billions of Dollar a year in totally unnecessary and uncalled for INTEREST EXPENSE," Trump posted. "Because of the vast amounts of money flowing into our Country because of Tariffs, we should be paying the LOWEST INTEREST RATE OF ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Most of these countries are low interest rate paying cash machines, thought of as elegant, solid, and prime, only because the U.S.A. allows them to be."

Powell said "a lot" of the tariffs that might have driven inflation have already worked their way through the economy, which he called "good news," but he said that could possibly signal other problems with the U.S. economy.

"The Tariffs being charged to them, while bringing in $BILLIONS to us, still allows most of them to have a significant trade surplus, though much smaller, with our beautiful, formerly abused Country," Trump posted. "In other words, I have been very nice, kind, and gentle to countries all over the World. With a mere flip of the pen, $BILLIONS more would come into the U.S.A., and these countries would have to go back to making money the old fashioned way, not on the back of America."

"I hope they all appreciate, although many don’t, what our great Country has done for them," the president added. "The Fed should substantially lower interest rates, NOW! Tariffs have made America strong and powerful again, far stronger and more powerful than any other Nation. Commensurate with this strength, both financial and otherwise, WE SHOULD BE PAYING LOWER INTEREST RATES THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP."

A top US military official has warned Donald Trump may prolong the end of the war in Ukraine.

Colonel Jonathan Sweet explained how the president could bring the conflict between Russian and Ukraine to an end, but that it would rely on military intervention and the help of NATO. He wrote in The Hill, "Trump has the cards to end the war, but those cards need to be played against Russia and not Ukraine.

"He must coerce Russia to stop attacking, give up their territorial aspirations for the Donbas, and accept a European military peace-keeping force in Ukraine.

"That will likely require military force. It begins with a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over western Ukraine, sufficiently arming Kyiv to defeat Russian forces in Ukraine, and destroying Moscow’s ability to fund and sustain the war.

"Anything less equals a Team Trump forever war in Europe." Sweet had previously referred to this prolonged decision-making as a "forever war" which Trump may have orchestrated.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were present for talks between the two nations, which Col. Sweet says did little to ease the tensions.

He wrote, "The talks commenced and concluded in Abu Dhabi the next day. The outcome? Russia refused to back off their maximalist demands and continued to demand Ukraine unilaterally withdraw from the Donbas.

"The U.S. is now 0 for 7 in its negotiations with Russia to end the war — chiefly because Ukraine stubbornly refuses to commit national suicide.

"Kyiv will not give Moscow in negotiations what the Russians cannot take on the battlefield. Nor should they be persuaded or coerced into doing so."

EU diplomats believe the relationship with Trump has broken down and that their dreams of working with him and the administration in the future are dead.

One EU diplomat said, "Our American Dream is dead. Donald Trump murdered it." Another senior envoy from a country described as a "key American ally" by Politico suggested the "trust is lost" with the U.S.

They added, "We are experiencing a great rupture of the world order."

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