Members of the far-right Oath Keepers’ extremist group charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol will face jurors this fall after a choose on Tuesday denied protection attorneys’ bid to delay the high-profile trial till subsequent 12 months.
Legal professionals for Stewart Rhodes, the chief of the Oath Keepers, and different associates of the antigovernment group argued a trial starting in September could be tainted by publicity surrounding current Jan. 6 Home committee hearings and that attorneys nonetheless have an excessive amount of proof to type by means of.
However U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta stated he’s assured the court docket will discover a honest jury for the Oath Keepers’ case in Washington subsequent month and that he’s obligated to supervise a speedy trial for the defendants, who’ve been locked up for months. Transferring the trial would additionally “wreak havoc” on the court docket’s calendar, which is crammed with trials into subsequent 12 months, he stated.
“It is a court docket of legislation, we can’t wait on the legislative course of to unfold,” Mehta stated.
Rhodes and 4 co-defendants are heading to trial on Sept. 26 on fees together with seditious conspiracy, a not often used Civil Battle-era cost that requires as much as 20 years in jail. They’re accused of plotting for weeks to dam the peaceable switch of energy and maintain President Donald Trump in workplace.
Protection attorneys have argued there was no plan to storm the Capitol and that any plans they made had been solely about offering safety on the rally earlier than the riot or shield themselves towards attainable assaults from far-left activists.
Mehta urged Tuesday that he believes the protection has a robust case, saying he didn’t consider it was a “laydown” case for prosecutors and he’s “unsure jurors within the District of Columbia will both.”
A special choose overseeing the opposite main case stemming from the Jan. 6 riot — involving members of the Proud Boys extremist group — agreed to postpone the beginning of that trial from Aug. 8 to Dec. 12 after attorneys for a number of of the boys argued that their purchasers couldn’t get a good trial within the midst of the committee’s hearings. The committee has stated it’s public hearings will resume in September.
In a separate matter on Tuesday, Mehta rejected Trump’s request to dismiss lawsuits filed by 4 Capitol cops searching for damages arising from accidents they sustained whereas defending the Capitol from the violent mob.
Mehta cited an earlier February ruling denying Trump’s bid to dismiss different lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol cops. In that ruling, Mehta stated Trump’s phrases throughout a rally earlier than the storming of the Capitol had been possible “phrases of incitement not protected by the First Modification.”
“Solely in probably the most extraordinary circumstances may a court docket not acknowledge that the First Modification protects a President’s speech,” Mehta wrote on the time. “However the court docket believes that is that case.”
Trump’s legal professionals are interesting that ruling, saying in court docket papers filed final week that the Supreme Courtroom has “made clear that when performing in his official capability, a President of the USA is immune from civil swimsuit.”
By Alanna Durkin Richer, Related Press
