Jan. 6 trials slowed by mounting evidence in US Capitol riot

In the nearly nine months since January 6, federal agents have tracked and arrested more than 600 people in the United States who are believed to have joined the US Capitol riot.

Bringing these cases to court quickly is proving to be an even more difficult task.

Investigators have gathered a mountain of evidence in the attack and are working to organize and share it with defense lawyers. And that mountain continues to grow, with new arrests taking place practically every week.

Washington’s federal court, meanwhile, is overflowing with January 6 cases, more than doubling the total number of new criminal cases filed there last year. To make matters worse, the court has restricted legal proceedings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The court’s delays are dragging on a process that has already been challenged by some right-wing lawmakers who argue that prosecuting those charged with petty crimes is a waste of time and money. As trials continue to stall, so will responses to what happened that day and the possible consequences of the most violent attack on the Capitol in a generation. Meanwhile, the Democrats in the House of Representatives are summoning former President Donald Trump’s aides and have requested a lot of documents as a select committee is also investigating the uprising.

While it is not uncommon for federal cases to take a year or more to process the system, some defense lawyers and judges raise concerns that expedited defendants may have to wait long before getting their day in court.

“The reason for the delay has not changed or has even been remotely specified. It’s as amorphous today as it was months ago, “wrote a lawyer in court documents against the prosecutor’s motion to cancel the planned November trial of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a former army reservist who is described by staff as a well-known Nazi sympathizer.

To date, only about 80 cases have been resolved through admission of guilt – mostly by those charged only with misdemeanors. Numerous others are charged with serious criminal offenses, including conspiracy, assaulting officials, and obstruction of an official process that requires long terms behind bars. The Department of Justice has named it the largest investigation in American history, with investigations into 55 out of 56 FBI field offices. The evidence gathered in the attack includes thousands of hours of video footage, hundreds of thousands of tips from the public, and more than 1 million Parler posts, responses, and data. The Justice Department is building huge databases to share all evidence from the attack with defense lawyers.

In the best-known case to date, which involved more than a dozen members and staff members of the far-right Oath Keepers group, prosecutors recently told a judge that a January trial date for the first defendants seems increasingly unrealistic given how many Evidence they still need to get into the hands of the defense attorneys.

US District Judge Amit Mehta said if they have to wait for prosecutors to release “every single scrap of evidence” they gathered in the Jan. 6 investigation, and not just what pertains to a specific defendant there will be no trials in any of these cases before 2023. And three of the Oath Keepers defendants who are alleged to have conspired to block the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidential win over Trump are behind bars.

“I have to keep an eye on your interests in a quick process here,” said Mehta. “I am concerned about a long pre-trial detention,” he added. Rather than making an immediate decision, he signaled that the first trial against Oath Keepers would likely be postponed to April, with the second scheduled for July.

At least one of the 70 or so defendants who are in custody has already pointed out the delays in trying to get out of prison. Kelly Meggs, identified by authorities as the head of the Florida Chapter of the Oath Keepers, said in an unsuccessful request for release that since a January trial seems unlikely, he is effectively being held in “indefinite pre-trial detention,” among the Prosecutors say that, amid unprecedented challenges, they are working as quickly as possible to share any evidence that may aid the defense and advance the cases. But with each new arrest or while analyzing the thousands of hours of video recorded during that chaotic day, new evidence is still being unearthed. In Robert Reeder’s case, armchair detectives calling themselves Sedition Hunters unearthed new evidence just before he was due to be sentenced to probation last month. The video appears to show Shipowner fighting with a police officer, contradicting his claim that he was not involved in any violence that day. Reeder’s lawyer called the clip problematic. A new verdict is scheduled for October 8th.

The coronavirus only makes things worse.

Cases have already been secured due to the pandemic, and the court has said no more than three trials can be held at the same time at least until the end of October to allow social distancing. In one case, a judge recently warned attorneys that there is no guarantee they will go to court as planned in February if COVID-19 numbers rise.

The pandemic has also made it difficult for defendants behind bars to work safely with their lawyers – an issue that has plagued the entire criminal justice system.

“Defense attorneys are simply unable to meet their clients regularly, share data, or prepare the defense with them in a dedicated and consistent manner,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow who posted the Jan 6 cases for the extremism program from George Washington University. “It’s a very real problem.” Some defendants, like Hale-Cusanelli, say they no longer want to wait for their chance to defend themselves in court. Hale-Cusanelli is due to be tried on Nov. 9, but prosecutors say it cannot. A judge has scheduled a hearing for next week to decide whether to keep that date.

A lawyer for the former army reservist accused prosecutors of taking more time just to “consolidate their case” against his client, “even though he allegedly had enough evidence to prosecute him.” The prosecutors called this claim “completely unfounded”. “The government has provided eminently reasonable explanations for the delay: their energetic efforts to address the challenges posed by the vast amount of relevant evidence it needs to review, process, categorize and put into a format that is accessible and useful makes the defense, ”they wrote in court records.

Prosecutors say Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security officer at a naval base, used his military training to avoid the effects of pepper spray and tactical hand signals to push other rioters forward on Jan. 6. He later described the day as exciting as a tipster praised the “adrenaline, the rush, the intent” he felt according to court documents.

Hale-Cusanelli’s attorney has determined that he is not accused of harming anyone that day. The defense has described him as an “insightful person” who “made full use of his or her right to freedom of expression prior to imprisonment”.

(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)