A former Oath Keeper who gave “extensive” help to federal prosecutors investigating members of the anti-government militia group in reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault was on Friday sentenced to a few years of probation.
Caleb Berry, 23, traveled to Washington forward of Jan. 6 with members of the Oath Keepers’s Florida chapter when he was 19 years previous. He knew the extremist group was bringing a big cache of weapons to the nation’s capital and ready to take dramatic motion to make sure former President Trump would stay in workplace, prosecutors stated.
Berry pleaded responsible in July 2021 to conspiracy and obstructing an official continuing, admitting to prosecutors that the Oath Keepers deliberate to attempt to cease the certification of the 2020 presidential election outcomes.
“The best way that Berry has owned the severity of his conduct and the extent of his errors stands in stark distinction to the blame-shifting, responsibility-denying feedback made by the extra senior leaders of this conspiracy,” Assistant U.S. Legal professional Kathryn L. Rakoczy wrote within the authorities’s sentencing memorandum, looking for a major downward departure from federal tips.
As a part of his plea deal, Berry testified earlier than a grand jury and two Oath Keepers trials. He additionally traveled to D.C. to testify in two different trials, the place his testimony was finally not wanted.
Berry testified to the violent rhetoric utilized by Oath Keepers chief Stewart Rhodes – who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in jail – within the group’s encrypted chats.
He stated that when Rhodes informed members of the group that they might act if Trump didn’t and to “conquer or die,” he understood that to imply that they “needed to act or we would die.”
Berry’s testimony largely implicated Kelly Meggs, chief of the Florida chapter. Meggs was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a trial the place Berry didn’t testify and was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Berry offered vital data that, earlier than the group ascended the Capitol steps in a military-style stack formation, Meggs informed different Oath Keepers that they had been “going to try to stop the vote count.”
Prosecutors requested a federal choose to condemn Berry to a few years of supervised probation, plus $2,000 in restitution, whereas Berry’s legal professional requested the “minimum sentence permissible.” U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta ordered Berry to pay $500 in restitution, on prime of the 36-month probation sentence.
Berry joined the Oath Keepers in November 2020 amid fears that the Structure was “being ignored” and a need to “do something.” His legal professional, Daniel Fernandez, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Berry was “caught up in the political drama” of 2020 and “lonely” when he determined to affix.
He has since distanced himself from the group.
“What I noticed that day within the capitol terrified me,” Berry wrote in an apology letter to a number of regulation enforcement officers who testified earlier than the Home committee that investigated the Capitol assault. “I returned to Tampa the very next day and immediately resigned from the oath keepers.”
“I sincerely regret what I did on Jan. 6th, 2021,” he continued. “I’m ashamed of what occurred that day.”
Along with Rhodes and Meggs, 4 different Oath Keepers had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. A number of different members of the extremist group had been convicted of great felonies.
Greater than 1,500 rioters have been charged in reference to the Capitol assault.
