Judge rejects Stewart Rhodes lawyer's 'mystifying' request for special master

On Wednesday, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reported that the federal judge presiding over Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes' trial has denied his legal team's demand to appoint a special master to review his case.

"You told me last week you were here in good faith. I’m starting to question that," said District Judge Amit Mehta in Rhodes' hearing. "The idea that you would want to inject a special master for no apparent purpose … a week before trial is mystifying."

Rhodes' legal team filed the special master request earlier this week, asserting that it was necessary to sort through all of the information amassed during discovery and they have not had access to that material — a claim Mehta shot down as false

The request came shortly after former President Donald Trump drew national attention by persuading a Florida judge he appointed to mandate a special master to review the classified documents FBI agents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate — a move that has drawn widespread criticism from legal experts and a threat by the DOJ to appeal portions of the ruling.

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The Oath Keepers are a far-right paramilitary group consisting mainly of current and former military and law enforcement. Many of their members were present at the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, where they executed a "stack" formation to force their way into the complex.

Since then, Rhodes and ten other Oath Keepers have been charged with seditious conspiracy.