Profile: Kelli Stewart

Kelli Stewart

People’s Rights Washington Area 4 Assistant

Location: Camas, Washington

 

While Kelli Stewart is officially listed as a Washington State Area 4 Assistant in People’s Rights, she plays an outsized role in the region and has helped build southern Washington into one of the group’s strongest areas. Stewart’s activism has included organizing efforts in Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.[1]

Stewart’s involvement in Ammon Bundy’s networks extends back to shortly after he led the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.[2] Stewart attributes her early activism to a Portland, Oregon vigil held that year for Lavoy Finicum, killed in a shootout with police during the standoff.[3] By 2018, Stewarts’ worked on a pardon for Dwight and Steve Hammonds, the ranchers whose illegal activities on federal lands helped precipitate the Malheur occupation. A photo of Stewart with far-right Washington State legislator Matt Shea and Roger Roots calling for the pardon bears the emblem of the paramilitary Three Percenters.[4] Stewart was also online member of the Three Percent of Washington State Facebook group as well as the Washington State Militia.

Kelli Stewart provides a People’s Rights link to the Posse Comitatus of the 1980s through her support for Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul.[5] As late as August 13, 2020, Stewart wrote, “Let my people go! Free Yorie Kahl and Scott Fahl! Scot is my friend and brother in Christ, and I believe he should be released after almost 4 decades in prison for defending himself and his friends against a federal ambush!”[6]

In May 1983, Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul were convicted of second-degree murder, and other charges, in connection to the shootings of Federal Marshalls Robert Cheshire Jr. and Ken Muir. The legal problems leading to their violent confrontation with federal agents originated in their involvement in the virulently racist and antisemitic Christian Identity movement and the Posse Comitatus that it helped spawn. Their problems began when Gordon Kahl, Yorie’s father, informed by the idea that a Jewish “Synagogue of Satan” controlled the federal government, quit paying income taxes in the late 1960s. After indictments against Gordon Kahl in 1973 and 1974, he served time in prison. By 1983, Kahl’s subsequent refusal to pay court-ordered back taxes or file probation reports led federal agents to attempt to arrest him, only to be met with armed opposition. Gordon Kahl would be killed in a June 1983 confrontation with law enforcement, quickly becoming a martyr for the Posse and the burgeoning white supremacist movement. [7]

In addition to Kahl and Faul, Kelli Stewart has supported the effort to gain a release from prison for Schaeffer Cox, former leader of the Alaska Peacekeeper Militia convicted in 2012 on federal charges of conspiracy to murder a judge and law enforcement officials.[8] And Stewart has supported the mobilization of militias as “defenders of the people.”[9]

Kelli Stewart has also espoused the core Posse Comitatus idea that “The county sheriff is the highest law enforcer, even when there are incorporate cities within his county…I would love to see the County Sheriff send in his deputes to keep the peace in the cities, and defund all police” [italics added].[10]

As recent as August Kelli Stewart posted a video on Facebook by antisemite David Icke, headlining her post with the statement, “Here is the problem, and the SOLUTION, all wrapped up in this tiny little twelve-minute…video.”[11]

In the video, the British-based Icke declares that fascism is “sweeping across the land and across this world” and is being justified by the “illusion pandemic of COVID-19.” He continues that,

“Current events are not random, they have not just happened. We are seeing a long, long, planned agenda rolling out in a script. and it is destined, if we do not stand up now, to end with the total, global subjugation of the human race…This world is controlled by a tiny few people because of a simple sequence of imposition and acquiescence…A tiny few impose their agenda on billions of people.”[12]

Elsewhere, and for many years, Icke has made clear that his thoughts on “global subjugation” are rooted in a bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theory holding that “a reptilian race has controlled the planet for thousands of years and continues to do so today.”[13] Icke attaches this view to the spurious and antisemitic claim that that reptilian “‘Jewish’ Rothschilds” lay behind Nazi atrocities against Jews:

“[R]eptilian bloodlines like the ‘Jewish’ Rothschilds funded and supported the Nazis and allowed the rank and file Jewish people to reap the unspeakable consequences… [I]t was the Rothschilds who helped to create and fund Hitler and the Nazis in the Second World War which included the sickening treatment of Jews, gypsies, communists, and others.”[14]

In similar conspiratorial terms, Kelli Stewart has written of the coronavirus that “The global elites want our nation. The Covid plandemic was just one part of this takeover…then on to the riots in the streets leading to civil unrest and war, then fires, the final blow will be round two of the fake plandemic just before the election.”[15] Like Icke’s COVID-19-response-equals-fascism framing, Stewart referred a statement by Governor Jay Inslee asking people to post photos of themselves wearing community-protecting masks as “Brainwashing 101 Hitler Style.”[16]

Stewart’s opposition to COVID-19 health protections brought her into a close alliance with Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson. Stewart heavily promotes the work of far-right figure KrisAnne Hall as a constitutional authority, using Hall’s work in People’s Rights Area 4 trainings.[17] Stewart has also worked closely with Roger Roots, a man with a history of hardcore racist activity, including previously writing for the Christian Identity Jubilee tabloid.[18] She has also used her Facebook account to promote the work of race-baiting libertarian and 16th and 17th Amendment opponent Ron Paul,  the far-right Defending Utah, and to praise Christian nationalist militia advocate Matt Shea.[19]

Stewart also appears to advocate a radical assault on the New Deal and social welfare spending, referring to Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme meant to steal our interest on our stolen funds.” Stewart appears to believe that because taxation is involved, programs such as public funding of schools, social security disability, VA checks, food stamps, publicly funded health care, and public support for farmers amount to “theft” and being forced to “give to socialism.”[20]

Notable Facebook Likes: Schaeffer Cox, Freedom Foundation, Chuck Baldwin, American Lands Council, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, Mises Institute, Young Americans for Liberty, Ted Nugent – American, Stop Agenda 21 – Washington State, Abolish Human Abortion, Liberty State, Lavoy Finicum’s Stand for Freedom #Liberty Rising, Cliven Bundy American Patriot, Students for Life of America, Roger Roots for Montana State Auditor, Defending Utah, Adam Kokesh, Ron Paul, Bundy Ranch, Confederate Riders of America, Jewel Skousen, Tenth Amendment Center, Glenn Beck, Fully Informed Jury Association, Tomi Lahren, Jay Sekulow, and Krisanne Hall, JD.[21]

Notable Group Memberships: Anti-Maskers, Open Oregon, Open Washington Now, Patriot Prayer Group, Washington III%, and Washington State Militia.

 

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NOTES

 

[1] People’s Rights Washington. Facebook. August 28, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/uniteforlibertynow/videos/645751073013394/; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. September 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/100011813922844/videos/894140844323038/

[2] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 19, 2016https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=152131745190622&id=100011813922844

[3] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. May 18, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=815173852219738&set=a.119199098483887.

[4] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 22, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=398657733871354&set=a.119199098483887.

[5] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. May 24, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=819049525165504&set=a.119199098483887&type=3; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. May 29, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=822386924831764&set=a.119199098483887&type=3.

[6] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. August 13, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=873577509712705&id=100011813922844. While Stewart does voice concern about African-American harmed by police, and places Leonard Peltier in with Kahl and Faul as victims of government tyranny, this is deceptive. Amnesty International wrote in 2014 that Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota American Indian Movement leader, has been “imprisoned for 38 years despite serious concerns about the fairness of proceedings leading to his conviction,” Kahl and Faul’s conflicts with law enforcement were driven by Gordon Kahl’s (Yories) father tax protest that was itself driven by the viciously racist and antisemitic ideology of Christian Identity and his involvement in the Posse Comitatus. For a lengthy description of this involvement, see Corcoran, James. 1990. Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus: Murder in the Heartland. New York: Penguin Books; and Levitas, Daniel. 2002. The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.

[7] Both Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul had shown their support for Gordon Kahl’s violently racist cause on multiple occasions. The two had also travelled with Gordon Kahl during a 1983 trip to Colorado to spread Posse and Christian Identity ideas; worked to promote a speaking event for anti-Semite Keith Shive; and participated in meeting at which Gordon Kahl advocated the creation of a whites-only Posse township. When Yorie Kahl’s mother, Joan, had attempted to make a deal with IRS, she was briefly excommunicated from their family church and Yorie gave her a note accusing her of attempting “to negotiate and compromise by paying tithes and other blackmail payments to the tithe collectors of the Jewish-Masonic Synogogue (sic) of Satan.”  See Corcoran, James. 1990. Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus: Murder in the Heartland. New York: Penguin Books; and Levitas, Daniel. 2002. The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.

[8]Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 26, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=841180152952441&id=100011813922844; Bereich, Heidi. “Alaska Militia Leaders Arrested in Plot to Kill Troopers and a Judge.” Southern Poverty Law Center. March 11, 2011. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2011/03/11/alaska-militia-leader-arrested-plot-kill-troopers-and-judge; Morlin, Bill. “Alaska Militiamen Convicted in Antigovernment Murder Conspiracy.” Southern Poverty Law Center. June 19, 2012. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2012/06/19/alaska-militiamen-convicted-antigovernment-murder-conspiracy; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. United States v Francis Schaeffer Cox. No. 13-3000. August 29, 2017. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1872598.html; Associated Press. Supreme Court declines Alaska militia leader’s appeal. Apnews.com. June 12, 2018. https://apnews.com/3b83e39bf32d4e008cc626d26d62c8a1.

[9] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. July 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=845240835879706&id=100011813922844; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 1, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=824008108002979&id=100011813922844

[10] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 17, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=834615426942247&id=100011813922844&.

[11] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. August 30, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=886119605125162&id=100011813922844

[12] Call, Walden. Facebook. August 30, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/100009495828100/videos/2725120581147776/?t=14

[13] Icke, David. 1999. The Biggest Secret: The book that will change the world. Scottsdale, Arizona: Bridge of Love Publications, p.19.

[14] Ibid, p.81, 228. Befitting such views, Icke has also embraced the scurrilously antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a factual account of history: “The so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion were discovered in the last century and tell in incredible detail the events and methods of manipulation we have seen manifest in the 20th century.” Ibid, p.212.

[15] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. September 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=894700680933721&id=100011813922844.

[16] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 17, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=835002986903491&id=100011813922844&.

[17] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. June 15, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=833876527016137&id=100011813922844&.

[18] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. July 25, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=860512667685856&set=a.119199098483887&type=3; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. July 28, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/100011813922844/videos/862295884174201/

[19] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. April 21, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=796712230732567&id=100011813922844. On Ron Paul’s contribution to racism, see Markon, Jerry and Alice Crites. Ron Paul signed off on racist 1990s newsletters, associates say. Washington Post. January 27, 2010. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ron-paul-signed-off-on-racist-newsletters-sources-say/2012/01/20/gIQAvblFVQ_story.html; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. April 26, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=800350077035449&id=100011813922844; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. May 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=804207283316395&id=100011813922844; Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. July 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=844921232578333&id=100011813922844&

[20] See Stewart’s responses in the thread at Bundy, Ammon. Facebook. March 9, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10220621811391313&id=1115723640

[21] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. Likes. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011813922844&lst=100022604659194%3A100011813922844%3A1600110213&sk=likes. Accessed September 14, 2020.