A judge ripped the far-right Oath Keepers founder over 'bewildering' arguments for delaying a Capito

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: Oath Keepers' founder Rhodes fires lawyers, seeks delay in Capitol riot trial

Also: Judge nixes Oath Keepers leader’s bid to delay Jan. 6 trial

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Source: Business Insider

A judge ripped the far-right Oath Keepers founder over 'bewildering' arguments for delaying a Capitol riot trial

C. Ryan Barber
Wed, September 7, 2022 at 8:20 PM

From the outset of a court hearing Wednesday, Judge Amit Mehta made himself clear: He was not amused with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes' request to fire his defense team and delay his upcoming trial on charges related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

In a nearly 15-minute diatribe, Mehta denounced Rhodes over "incorrect and, frankly, bewildering" claims the far-right group's former leader made a day earlier in a request to replace his defense lawyers and push back his trial — currently set to start on September 26 — by three months. Mehta, an Obama appointee confirmed in 2014, flatly rejected those requests following an extended rebuke of Rhodes' suggestion that he could not receive a fair trial.

"The very first allegation is that somehow Mr. Rhodes is not receiving a fair trial, and that is unequivocally false," Mehta said.

Mehta convened the hearing a day after Rhodes, in a 20-page court filing a day earlier, asked to replace his Dallas-based defense team with a new lawyer, Ed Tarpley. Rhodes is set to stand trial alongside four other members of the Oath Keepers accused of plotting to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/judge-ripped-far-oath-keepers-002003898.html

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Source: Associated Press

Judge nixes Oath Keepers leader’s bid to delay Jan. 6 trial

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
September 7, 2022

The high-profile seditious conspiracy trial for the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group will begin this month after a judge on Wednesday rejected a last-minute bid by Stewart Rhodes to replace his lawyers and delay his Capitol riot case.

Rhodes said in court papers this week there had been a “breakdown” in communication between him and his two lawyers, who he claimed weren’t defending him forcefully enough. Rhodes’ new lawyer argued that the Oath Keepers founder has not been given enough time to adequately prepare for trial and urged the judge to delay his trial at least 90 days.

But the obviously irritated judge called the claim that Rhodes is being denied a fair trial “simply false.”

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said Rhodes’ suggestion that his lawyers are not providing effective counsel appeared to be “complete and utter nonsense” and questioned why concerns about his lawyers were surfacing for the first time just weeks before trial.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-conspiracy-government-and-politics-c84404b4bb289441342ccf2e99572468

[MagickMuffin]

1. Poor Elmer just can't catch a break

Elmer I got news for you, you gonna go to jail as a traitor and insurrectionist.

[H2O Man]

2. Recommended.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. Who do these clowns think they are? Rump?

Only rump could get away with stall tactics like that.

[Chainfire]

4. He certainly needs a fair trial before he disappears into the gulag for decades.

It is a little ironic considering the trial they wanted to give Pelosi.

[crickets]

5. Rhodes has come to the scary realization that his lawyers

are highly unlikely to get him off the hook. The request to change counsel was just stalling the inevitable - he knows it, his lawyers know it, the judge certainly knows it. Too bad.

[gratuitous]

6. Judge Mehta was being generous

Characterizing Elmer's stalling tactics as "bewildering" was a nice judicial way of saying "full of shit."