An attorney for the far-right Oath Keepers group exchanged text messages about election fraud with Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in November 2020. The general counsel for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, who has been charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said she was in […]
The general counsel for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, who has been charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said she was in touch with Andrew Giuliani while he was a White House public liaison assistant in the Trump administration. The texts were only related to allegations of election fraud and not the attack on the Capitol two months later, SoRelle said.
“None of that was like, ‘Hey, we should go storm the Capitol,’” SoRelle told NBC News. “It was like, ‘We have this affidavit,’ or whatever.”
Andrew Giuliani, who recently ran for the Republican nomination for New York governor, confirmed the interaction and said his last contact with SoRelle was on Nov. 10, 2020, according to his phone records.
“Until you mentioned her, until I looked it up, it didn’t really ring a bell,” Andrew Giuliani told the outlet.
SoRelle additionally tried to send a text message to the White House in December, according to a new book by former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), and journalist Hunter Walker. However, the message failed to be delivered because it was sent to a White House switchboard line. For Riggleman, the connection between Andrew Giuliani and a member of the Oath Keepers was not surprising.
“The phone data my team compiled makes clear the militant aspect of the Capitol attack and high-level associates of the former president were inextricably linked together,” Riggleman said. “It is so important for the American people to be aware of the direct links between the Trump White House and militant groups including this newfound connection between Kellye Sorelle and a former White House aide.”
SoRelle was photographed with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes outside the Capitol during the insurrection, along with several other leaders of the far-right militia. She has been charged with four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, obstruction of an official proceeding, and one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, according to a three-page indictment. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
This book makes a simple case. There is a growing militant, farright, Christian nationalist movement that is being fueled by online disinformation. That movement now constitutes an extremist wing of the Republican Party—the party that I once belonged to—and it poses a serious danger to our democracy. Fringe movements of any political stripe can turn violent. The Left is not immune and certainly not blameless. However, at the moment, the Far Right is more organized and more militant. My story lays out the concrete proof and data showing the scope of this threat and what I hope is the beginning of a blueprint for how we can confront it.
Steve Bannon and The Movement:
The movement: How Steve Bannon is spreading populist Trump-style politics across Europe
After being forced out as White House chief strategist, former Breitbart News chief determined to ignite his brand of nationalism in the rest of the world
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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