A short Federal Court Primer

[pdxmom]

I'm not an attorney, but work for an attorney who does Federal criminal defense. Here is, in general, what Scooter will go through next:

1. Arraignment - He'll appear, have charges read and enter a plea. He probably will be released, and any conditions regarding his release will be entered.

2. The judge will issue a date for the government to deliver discovery to his attorney (generally about 30 days). He will also set a tentative schedule for due date for motions and a first trial date - usually 2-3 months after arraignment.

3. Scooter will be assigned a pretrial officer. He will need to stay in contact with this person until trial, regarding any conditions that may have been set at arraignment. For example, if he wanted to fly off to Europe, he has to get the okay from his pretrial person.

4. After that, let the games begin. I'd guess that discovery doesn't all get there in 30 days, so there will be a set over due to that. Then we'll go through all the games of filing motions to suppress or dismiss, etc. Any plea offers or negotiations will take place during that time.

5. Don't expect any trial earlier than a year from now.

[jocapo]

1. November 2006 Elections

are approximately 1 year from now. How much of an impact (in the press) will this trial have on the mid-term elections?

[pdxmom]

2. Could have a huge impact. But I would

guess that, if there is no plea by then, that Scooter will do everything possible to set over that trial until after the elections. It isn't hard to do. Lots of possible motions that could be filed. Depends on how strict the federal judge is and how hard Fitz wants to push this to trial.

[Nite Owl]

3. It's so obvious that

the courts are our last chance to set the truth right and why they so want their people as judges. The courts are the only piece of the puzzle that they need to stop any convictions for the crimes that they do.

[pdxmom]

4. In the time I've been doing this work, I'm amazed at how

the "personalities" matter quite a bit about how your case can turn out. My attorney is excited when we get certain judges, because we know that judge will be more open to whatever we ask. Others we know will just plow the case straight through.

Same with prosecutors. Some tell us we've gotten everything they have and we know that's true. Others play "hide the ball" with us and make us work extra hard to get all the information they have available to them.

If this goes to trial, just seeing the documents and filings that come out will be interesting to follow. Unfortunately, I foresee a lot of that being sealed.

[hootinholler]

5. Thanks for that

[MoonRiver]

6. I can wait. These procedures will be in the media non-stop.

That can't help but cast a negative light on the fascists.