A federal judge ordered one of the alleged Oath Keepers charged in the Capitol riot to be released on Friday, and questioned the strength of the conspiracy case against him. Thomas Caldwell, a 65-year-old veteran from rural Virginia, was charged in a wide-ranging conspiracy along eight members of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group. He has been in jail for several weeks, and the Justice Department argued he was too dangerous to release. Judge Amit Mehta criticized Caldwell's "fanciful" beliefs that the 2020 election should be overturned, and slammed the Oath Keepers for preparing for possible violence. But he also noted Caldwell's poor health and said there were shortcomings in the evidence against him. "There is an absence of direct evidence of planning by Mr. Caldwell to enter the Capitol building," Mehta said. "There are no text messages, communications by him, that speak to entering a building or trying to enter the building. And ultimately, he did not enter the building." Mehta put Caldwell on house arrest with GPS monitoring, banned him from using electronics, and warned him against communicating with anyone associated with the Oath Keepers. Mehta's decision reversed a previous ruling he made last month to keep Caldwell in jail pending trial...MORE
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