Pop-Up Defendant

You’ve heard of “pop up shops?”  The mini shop, can be in a covered trailer, that springs up at an established brick-and-mortar store, then disappears?

Meet the newest defendant in “The Oath Keepers Saga,” a Mr. William Todd Wilson, age 45, of Newton Grove, North Carolina.  Wilson popped up on May 5, sporting a plea deal signed April 20.  Wilson is just the newest iteration of what’s getting to be a DOJ signature style of “convenient defendants.”  He’s already out of the news cycle.

What is Wilson?  The second, or, now, the third pop-up defendant of the “Oath Keeper” variety since the first arrest of proper defendant Jessica Watkins on January 18, 2021?  A defendant not put before a Grand Jury, nor part of public charging documents, who abruptly pops up one day, places a plea deal on the record in open court with no notice, and then disappears back into the shadows.

Wilson’s plea deal consists of “Yes! I’m a seditious conspirator,” and “Yes! I obstructed – whatever you want to say I obstructed although I would probably fail a quiz on the 12th Amendment and have never read the Election Law §§13-15.”  Properly stated, Wilson signed off on a “Statement of Offense” and a plea letter.  Each document is 15-pages.  Wilson’s plea letter is the boilerplate version that includes the infamous Paragraph 9 agreement to participate in on-going “covert law enforcement activities” with no expiration date.  Wilson also signed a “Waiver of Indictment” and a “Waiver of Trial by Jury.”

What does Wilson supposedly add to the DOJ’s case?

Wilson makes two unique claims.  First, he claims to have been standing with Stewart Rhodes at the corner of the Capitol building as early as 1:30 p.m. on January 6, along with two other, unnamed individuals.  Second – and this is what made the news last week – Wilson claims to have been in a private suite at the cushy Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., at 5:00 p.m. on January 6, when Rhodes made a telephone call via speakerphone with an unnamed individual to ask to be put through to President Trump.

Per the website of the Phoenix Park Hotel:

“Phoenix Park Hotel suites are a masterpiece of style, character, and comfort. You’ll enjoy suites from 600 square feet with soaring ceilings and to suites with nearly 2,000 square feet. Our Washington DC suites contain the features available in our elegant guestrooms, as well as extras like a private terrace with city views, a wet bar, and a bas fireplace. In a Phoenix Park suite, you can be assured of luxurious mahogany furnishings, the amenities you deserve, and then some.”

Doesn’t that sound exactly like where you’d expect to find Gavrilo Princip types hanging out?

The story was enough to give the DOJ another stab at the media cycle.  The mainstream media reporters went wild with speculation as to who the unnamed person on the other end of the telephone might have been.  Rolling Stone Magazine may as well shutter its presses, their coverage was no more than a DOJ book report, which is pretty much how the coverage has gone for “Oath Keeper” defendants straight the way along.  (Side bar: not that it stopped The Washington Post from accepting a Pulitzer Prize for “Public Service,” yesterday, for its “coverage” of January 6 events and the fall-out.)

Now let me tell you what’s more interesting about Mr. Wilson than what the DOJ spoon fed to the press for its intended coverage.

This Mr. Wilson entered the Capitol building first among any of his co-defendants and he went inside to help push the Rotunda doors open to give entry to the crowd, generally, and one group of Oath Keeper defendants, in particular, and, as that line of Oath Keepers entered the building, Mr. Wilson filmed them as they entered through the doors he opened.

According to the plea deal papers, Wilson then spent the next half hour in the Capitol – alone.  Not moving with any of the other dozen or so co-defendants who entered the building for approximately eight minutes or less.  The DOJ paperwork does not detail Mr. Wilson’s movements once he was done filming the first of two groups of co-defendants entering the building through the Rotunda doors he pushed open from the inside.

Next, note that Wilson is represented by the law firm Dysart Willis out of Raleigh, N.C.  Three of the firm’s attorneys co-signed Wilson’s paperwork, including Attorney James Kurosad, whose background is a career working for the FBI on, inter alia, “domestic and international terrorism cases” and the DOJ as a prosecutor where his notch board included “disbarment of a criminal defense attorney, who obstructed Jim’s own federal grand jury investigation.”  Attorney Kurosad worked for federal prosecutors through 2019.  The “about” page spells out he was “both an FBI Special Agent and federal prosecutor for over 30 years.”

Wilson is released on personal recognizance pending a status report due to Judge Mehta on August 19, 2022.  Pretty amazing, especially when you consider that the co-defendants incarcerated pending trial, some since as early as January 2021, did not contribute to the opening of the Capitol building, assaulted no one, broke nothing, took nothing.  But, Wilson, who admits he entered the Capitol earlier than all, pushed the doors open from the inside, and then disappeared within the Capitol for twenty or more minutes, gets to go to the beach?

On that note, fellow beachcombers keep your eyes open: Wilson claims to have tossed his cell phone “into the Atlantic Ocean” to obstruct the investigation.  Looking at Newton’s Grove on the North Carolina map, that’s about equidistant of the Crystal Coast, Emerald Isle end, as it is to his law firm in Raleigh. Must not know too much about the tides because, unless he went out to Big Rock, that thing’s likely to wash back up from a simple toss it over the waves.

So, if it’s my turn to speculate, it’s not about who was on the alleged call with Rhodes.  It’s whether the fade-out on the shot of Wilson tossing his phone into the Atlantic Ocean was an audition for the movie that co-defendant Thomas Caldwell claims he was scoping out on January 6.  Caldwell, after all, is the one who claims to be a former FBI Section Chief, who was just at the Capitol to do research as a wanna-be script writer.

What I’m thinking is that the scripting possibilities are endless at this point.

Bottom line of this wild ride of a blog?  What the DOJ has, once again, managed to prove is that Rhodes’ ego outstripped his access.  This is yet another case where the DOJ allegations, if nothing else, demonstrate that Rhodes did not have direct access to the President.  On this most important day of Rhodes’ life.  On this day of “civil war” and “revolution” and “insurrection.”  On this day that a few dozen unrelated, un-coordinated men and women proved that the $500 million/year USCP security at the Capitol is so bad that you don’t need a gun or other weapons to storm The People’s House. 

If ever there had been a day that, if you had it, you’d go home to your Phoenix Park Hotel luxury “Congressional Penthouse Suite” at $950/night, tap into amenities “no less than royal treatment,” and dial the super-secret cell phone number of the President, January 6 would be it.

Rhodes didn’t have that number to dial.

So, remind me again: how is it that President Trump was responsible for the events of January 6?

Wilson’s case number on PACER is 22-cr-152. It is assigned to Judge Mehta.