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Judge refuses to delay seditious conspiracy trial for Oath Keeper Elmer Rhodes [1]
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Date: 2022-09-07
Mehta was often blunt during the hearing and remarked that Rhodes’ assertions left him “frankly bewildered.”
He told Tarpley it would be “humanly impossible” for him to be ready for trial even if he granted a 90 day-minimum delay, as Rhodes had requested.
”I’m sure Mr. Tarpley is a fine and talented lawyer,” Mehta said. “But no lawyer is going to be ready to try this case in 90 days, let alone three weeks.”
Mehta ordered Bright and Linder to remain on the case and said he wouldn’t allow Rhodes or Tarpley to wreak “havoc” on the docket.
The docket at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is indeed laden with cases from Jan. 6. The insurrection has caused major “traffic jams” at the court, Mehta said
And even if he granted the delay, the court’s calendar would then simply not permit Rhodes to stand trial until July 2023.
If his case was a simple one, and not on the magnitude of seditious conspiracy, shifts in schedule might be simpler, Mehta acknowledged. But prosecutors have already said they expect the trial to last four to six weeks. Mehta said Wednesday he suspects the four-week marker is correct given the huge amount of evidence and number of co-defendants in play.
On Rhodes’ complaints that his lawyers are hard to contact, that meetings are too infrequent, and that discovery has simply been too large or that prosecutors have been cagey about sharing evidence, Mehta was dubious.
These complaints specifically have become a regular feature in the delays requested by Rhodes. But Mehta said the Justice Department has “bent over backward” to share materials and other records that would help him prepare.
The judge acknowledged that preparing for trial from prison is difficult but it was Rhodes, he said, who opted to hire lawyers located in Texas instead of Virginia where he is currently detained.
“That’s his decision,” Mehta said as he reiterated his skepticism.
He had not heard a ‘whiff of discontent” with Linder or Bright until Tuesday. And further, he questioned why Rhodes would seek to replace his lawyers based in Texas with a lawyer based in Louisiana.
Mehta ultimately eviscerated Rhodes’ complaints one by one, emphasizing how thin the premise was for each grievance.
In his late filing, Rhodes had argued as well that he needed to compel discovery from Ray Epps, a onetime Oath Keeper who has been at the center of a now long-debunked right-wing conspiracy theory suggesting FBI agents incited the insurrection.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/7/2121413/-Judge-refuses-to-delay-seditious-conspiracy-trial-for-Oath-Keeper-Elmer-Rhodes
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