A bond hearing scheduled for Thursday for the leader of the right-wing group Oath Keepers was canceled Tuesday because he is in quarantine in jail.
Stewart Rhodes of Granbury was arrested last week along with 10 others on charges of seditious conspiracy. Officials said he tried to overthrow the government during the Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College.
U.S. Magistrate Kimberly Priest ordered Rhodes held without bond but agreed to hear arguments in favor of lower bail Thursday. Court records say the hearing has been canceled and Rhodes was put in quarantine while in jail. No other explanation was revealed.
Rhodes' estranged wife, Tasha Adams, said she felt safer with Rhodes locked up. She said that while she didn't foresee Rhodes being released on bail, in the event that he was to be granted bail "he would still be very monitored."
“It’s been constant, the fear,” said Adams, who has been trying to divorce Rhodes for the last three years. “He’s been in Texas, we’re in Montana so it’s a long way away. But he’s been deplatformed everywhere.”
So long as Rhodes was on Twitter, the family could tell where he was, Adams said. But after he was kicked off, it was not always able to know his whereabouts.
“There were times when it turns out he’s not too far away from us, and we wouldn’t know that. And he’s violent and he’s dangerous.” Adams said.
She said she felt as long as Rhodes was under federal monitoring, he would not be able to threaten the family, even if he posted bond.
“If he were to be able to get out of jail, which I think is almost… it’s just not going to happen. I don’t foresee that happening at all. He would still be, very monitored. If he were suddenly not in Texas, someone would let me know. We would just have to disappear for a little bit.”
The indictment against Rhodes alleges he and the Oath Keepers made their way to Washington in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, picking up weapons along the way. The indictment says the group began to plan for an uprising in late December 2020 and had devised plans to upend the Electoral College certification.
The maximum sentence for seditious conspiracy is 20-years in federal prison.
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