Feds bust Oath Keeper, Michael Jackson impersonator

Knowledgeable Broadway actor who has been performing as Judas in “Jesus Christ Celebrity,” and who additionally does Michael Jackson impersonations, was arrested Tuesday for invading the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with fellow members of the extremist Oath Keepers group.

James Beeks, 49, was sporting what seems to be his duplicate Michael Jackson “Unhealthy” tour jacket when he marched in a so-called stack formation with different Oath Keepers up the Capitol’s east steps and “stormed into” the complicated with “a mob of individuals” by means of doorways guarded by cops, a courtroom submitting reveals.

Beeks’ “Unhealthy” garb made him stand out from different Oath Keepers, a lot of whom wore camouflage in the course of the riot, in keeping with authorities.

The Orlando, Florida, resident, who performs underneath the stage identify James T. Justis, was seen earlier this month by authorities performing as Judas in a nationwide touring firm of “Jesus Christ Celebrity” in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the submitting says.

Beeks beforehand appeared on Broadway in “Kinky Boots,” “Aida,” “Ragtime,” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.”

His YouTube web page, which has the username “jdmoonwalker … describes him as ‘one of many Prime Michael Jackson Tribute artists within the US,'” the submitting says.

Final December, Beeks made an annual membership cost to Oath Keepers Inc., in keeping with the submitting.

Beeks was arrested in Milwaukee, the place his present started performances Tuesday. He was launched after showing in federal courtroom in Wisconsin.

He’s charged with obstructing a continuing of Congress, and with getting into restricted grounds with the aim of disrupting authorities enterprise.

The case is being prosecuted within the U.S. District Courtroom in Washington, D.C., the place greater than 15 different Oath Keepers and greater than 600 different riot defendants are additionally charged in reference to the assault on the Capitol.

That riot started after two months of false claims by then-President Donald Trump that he truly received the 2020 election, and that President Joe Biden’s victory was solely the results of widespread poll fraud.

On Jan. 6, Trump spoke at a rally for supporters exterior the White Home. He urged the group to march to the Capitol and protest what was then an ongoing joint session of Congress within the means of confirming Biden’s Electoral School win.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over that session and ended up accepting the outcomes, regardless of arguments by Trump and different allies that he ought to reject them.

A whole bunch of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol because the rally ended. A lot of them ended up getting into the buildings after pushing by cops.

Video and nonetheless pictures taken in the course of the riot present Beeks sporting a black jacket with the phrase “BAD” written on the left breast, black pants, a black helmet, goggles and a neck gaiter, the courtroom submitting says. The doc provides that he was “carrying what seems to be a black protect.”

An Oath Keeper member who earlier pleaded responsible in a Capitol riot case advised authorities that Beeks joined up with a gaggle of Oath Keepers who walked from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. to the Capitol.

Beeks advised the opposite member, whose identify was not included within the submitting, “that he had just lately joined the Oath Keepers, that he was from Orlando, and that he had been following” the social media posts of the group’s chief, Kelly Meggs.

Some members of that mob “attacked officers in attempting to realize entry into the Capitol, whereas yelling, ‘Take their shields,’ ‘Our home,’ and ‘We Need Trump!,'” the submitting says. “Attackers assaulted officers utilizing pepper spray, flagpoles, and quite a few improvised weapons and projectiles.”

Authorities stated Beeks was a part of a gaggle of “Stack One” members who break up off after getting into the Capitol Rotunda, then tried to power their approach by means of a line of cops guarding the hallway that led to the Senate chamber. That group was forcibly repelled, the submitting says.

The opposite half of Stack One headed to the Home of Representatives. One member of that splinter group later stated they have been in search of Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in keeping with the submitting.

The submitting notes that “Regulation enforcement situated open supply images of an individual who seems to be Beeks sporting” the identical “Unhealthy” tour jacket that was seen on the particular person photographed in the course of the Capitol riot.

The submitting contains “images [that] have been posted on Instagram on April 4, 2020, by an individual who included the hashtag #jesuschristsuperstar.”

“In keeping with a web based forged itemizing, the one who posted the images on Instagram is an actor in a touring manufacturing of the play Jesus Christ Celebrity,” the submitting says. “Beeks, underneath the stage identify ‘James T. Justis,’ can be an actor in that very same manufacturing.”

In an interview final month about “Jesus Christ Celebrity,” Beeks talked concerning the present and its which means.

“The identical folks that praised him – praised Jesus and supported him are the identical folks that tore him down,” Beeks stated. “I really feel a whole lot of reflection in our society immediately. And I believe artwork imitates life.”

Beeks additionally talked concerning the character of Judas, who within the Gospels betrays Jesus to the Romans, who’ve him crucified.

He stated in that interview with Equality 365 that Judas within the present is “extra of a hero.”

“This manufacturing leaves us with a query about his position,” Beeks stated. “I do not take a look at it as Judas being a foul man. I believe he’s a hero. I’m honored to be the archetype of Judas and to offer him a voice.”

“I need folks to have a look at Judas in a unique gentle and from totally different views. He wasn’t a foul man, and was solely doing what he needed to do,” he stated.