“My sister and I were solidly in freakout mode and scared,” he testified, “That’s when the embarrassment about the whole thing kicked in … I’m going to have to tell my mom.” They left for North Carolina and burned their gear in Steele’s backyard that night. He testified that at one point during the riot he and Steele began to worry about the group’s plans for possible gun violence and their own legal liability. In a separate trial last year against Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes and other top lieutenants in the group, Young broke down on the witness stand and apologized for his actions, according to Politico. Young later accepted a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. She applied to join the Oath Keepers days before the riot, then drove to Washington with her brother Graydon Young of Florida, already a member of the group. Jonathan Lewis, a research fellow with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told The Charlotte Observer that Steele is among 29 accused or convicted riot participants with law enforcement backgrounds.Īccording to legal filings in her case, Steele was a late addition to the cause.

Steele is one of least 28 North Carolina defendants, several with police and military ties. More than 1,000 arrests have been made in the two-year investigation of the riot.

The unprecedented violence, which was unleashed by a mob of Donald Trump supporters enraged by the former president’s baseless claims of a stolen election, has been tied to five deaths and injuries to some 140 police officers. ties that is accused of taking a leading role in planning and executing the Capitol attack. The verdict is the government’s latest blow against the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group with strong N.C.

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