Gun rights activist Adam Kokesh has posted bond and will be released from behind bars nearly one week after a SWAT raid of his suburban Washington, DC home left him facing two felony charges.
A Fairfax County, Virginia judge granted bond for Kokesh at $5,000 Friday evening, and local network WJLA reports that the jailed Second Amendment advocate is expected to be released from custody Monday afternoon.
Kokesh, 31, was arrested last Tuesday, July 9, after upwards of 20 heavily-armed police officers stormed into his Herndon, VA home to execute a warrant authorized in response to a video the activist posted to the website YouTube several days earlier. In the clip, Kokesh is shown loading a shotgun two blocks from the White House in defiance of DC’s stringent ban against carrying firearms within the city.
Kokesh previously attempted to organize a July 4 march into DC in which hundreds of participants would have carried guns into the city from neighboring northern Virginia, but that demonstration was ultimately halted amid a series of warnings from police.
“We will not be silent. We will not obey. We will not allow our government to destroy our humanity. We are the final American Revolution,” he is caught saying in the 23-second clip. “See you next Independence Day.”
Hours after Kokesh posted the YouTube video on July 4, the United States Park Police confirmed that they were investigating the incident. He was arrested just days later and charged with possession of a Schedule I or Schedule II drug while also in possession of a firearm. For having both a gun and an undisclosed amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms in his house, Kokesh could be convicted and sent back behind bars for a minimum of two years.
Upon being booked last week, Kokesh was reportedly uncooperative and refused to walk to his arraignment or speak to a judge, leaving the court to decide initially on holding him without bond. The judge reportedly had a change of heart before the weekend, however, and agreed to let Kokesh out from Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on condition the $5,000 bond be paid — and if Kokesh refrains from possessing firearms until his case has concluded.
A preliminary hearing in the case if scheduled for October 2.