Federal prosecutors enjoy charged a 14th member of the Oath Keepers with involvement within the Capitol insurrection, on this case a New Jersey man who they are saying modified into once in contact with the neighborhood’s founder Stewart Rhodes and invited him to a “leadership assembly of diverse patriot groups” in southeastern Pennsylvania lawful days sooner than Jan. 6.
Per a prison complaint filed in federal court within the District of Columbia, James Breheny moreover forwarded Rhodes a message explaining that the assembly modified into once “our final likelihood to put together earlier than the cloak. This assembly will be for leaders most effective.”
The complaint, unsealed Thursday, alleges that Breheny reached out to Rhodes on Dec. 21 to ask him to a assembly in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 3. On the time he moreover forwarded Rhodes a message from an unnamed third party that stated: “It’d be the day we get our comms on level with diverse other patriot groups, portion rally aspects and many others.” Breheny added that no cellphones will be allowed into the assembly, ostensibly to create sure no one might perhaps well presumably tale the conversations, prosecutors wrote in their complaint.
The complaint stated Breheny moreover texted Rhodes to repeat him that any individual had rented a constructing for the assembly, then once more it provides no further facts. If the assembly took pickle as planned, it can most likely well presumably indicate there modified into once extra coordination and preparation amongst anti-government groups than beforehand disclosed and, doubtlessly, that the Oath Keepers labored in dwell performance with other organizations.
Breheny, who lives in Dazzling Lawn, New Jersey, modified into once arrested Thursday and is charged with entering a restricted constructing, violent entry, and impeding an official proceeding, a prison carrying a sentence of up to 20 years in reformatory. He couldn’t be reached for suppose. A criminal expert has no longer yet made an look on his behalf in federal court.
Per prosecutors, Breheny willingly entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and “bragged about gaining entry” in textual allege messages despatched on the time, but lawful over per week later he lied to regulation enforcement officers about his role, claiming “he did no longer willfully enter and modified into once pushed interior by the surge of folks.”
Surveillance camera and other video photos displays Breheny entering the constructing, and prosecutors utter that within the days following the Capitol insurrection, he deleted evidence from his cellular phone to boot to his complete Fb account, which used the cloak cloak name “Seamus Evers.”
In a message on Jan. 6, Breheny wrote, “We breached the door Small one!” A subsequent message read, “I even should clear chats,” prosecutors alleged.
In April, the FBI served a search warrant on Fb to ascertain the contents of that deleted account, which contained photos of Breheny within the Capitol. Prosecutors stated that lawful hours earlier than the Capitol modified into once breached, Rhodes added Breheny to a neighborhood chat, “DC Op: Jan 6 21,” on the encrypted messaging carrier Signal under the alias “Seamus.” Breheny looks to enjoy deleted the contents of that neighborhood chat from his cellular phone, despite the indisputable truth that investigators enjoy been ready to ascertain it by taking a survey on the phones of other those who had been moreover within the chat.
Since leisurely January, prosecutors investigating the Capitol insurrection enjoy charged 13 folks associated with the Oath Keepers, which the Justice Department characterizes as a “loosely organized collection of folks, some of whom are associated with militias.”
A form of folks, Jon Schaffer, pleaded responsible final month and agreed to cooperate with the probe. The ideal dozen folks, who enjoy been indicted together, are going thru conspiracy charges for his or her role in what prosecutors claim modified into once a planned and coordinated try to interfere with certification of the Electoral College. That prosecution is the most attention-grabbing of any to return out of the Capitol riots and, attributable to the conspiracy worth, arguably the most serious.
It’s miles unclear whether Breheny will be added to that conspiracy case, which began with lawful three defendants. All 12 defendants if so enjoy pleaded no longer responsible. Even supposing Rhodes has been a clear focal level of investigators, who enjoy carefully detailed his messages and movements earlier than and after Jan. 6 in diverse court filings, he has no longer been charged.
Per the salvage role of the Oath Keepers’ New Jersey Chapter, Breheny is the Bergen County coordinator for the neighborhood. In a single on-line photo, he looks in a militia uniform with a patch indicating he’s a member of the New Jersey Lightfoot Militia, a neighborhood chapter of a nationwide neighborhood that considers itself a constitutional militia but is no longer fragment of the Oath Keepers.
In 2016, Breheny looks to enjoy plod as a Republican for a Bergen County Commissioner pickle (on the time known as a Freeholder) but modified into once eradicated within the principle. Media stories stated he labored as a valve technician for Magnatrol Valve Inc. According to a post on the Oath Keepers web role, Breheny joined Rhodes and other contributors of the neighborhood supporting “local militia and police efforts in providing tournament security and civilian protection” all the design thru used president Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. “Standup patriots all,” Rhodes commented, relating to Breheny and other Oath Keepers from New Jersey and New York who attended the tournament.
