ABroadway actor who joined the Oath Keepers and surged into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was acquitted Wednesday of all charges he faced after the judge in the case concluded there was no evidence he was even aware of the group’s alleged conspiracy to obstruct Congress that day.
Instead, James Beeks, who was in the midst of a “Jesus Christ Superstar” tour when he was arrested, walked out of the courthouse Wednesday grinning, serenading a codefendant’s lawyer with a rendition of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” and talking about starting a career in tech.
It was a surprising turn for a man who conducted most of his criminal defense without an attorney and was known for submitting rambling declarations and hard-to-follow motions to the court. He’s one of two dozen Oath Keepers charged in a conspiracy along with the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes. But he's just the second among them to be acquitted of the felony counts he faced.
“If I went back, I would not have gone. I made a mistake,” Beeks said in a brief interview outside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. “It has ruined my reputation, especially in the entertainment industry that I worked so hard to build. I was at the apex of my career.”
Beeks said he only joined the Oath Keepers on a whim after a prospective traveling companion opted not to go to Washington, D.C. ahead of Jan. 6. That prospective companion, Samuel Armes, has
his own bizarre Jan. 6 story. Armes interviewed with the Jan. 6 select committee about his connection to a document titled “1776 Returns,” a blueprint for storming government buildings to stop the certification of the election, that was found on Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio’s computer.
Without anyone to go with, Beeks said he looked up the Oath Keepers, whom he viewed as aligned with his principles related to the Constitution, and decided to meet them in Washington.
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