Jan. 6 judge slams accused rioters' attempt to delay trial -- again -- ahead of Trump inauguration

Source: Law & Crime

Nov 28th, 2024, 1:18 pm


A federal judge who has overseen the cases of some of the most high-profile defendants accused in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has swatted down an attempt by two defendants to delay trial in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s impending inauguration.

Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth — who once favorably compared so-called “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley’s oratory skills to those of Martin Luther King Jr. — took a decidedly less generous view toward defendants, Richard Slaughter and his stepson, Caden Paul Gottfried, and their request to delay their trial. In a ruling issued Wednesday, Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, swatted down the duo’s request as nothing less than “preposterous mischaracterization” of the Justice Department’s landmark prosecution of the perpetrators of the riot.

Slaughter and Gottfried were arrested in November 2022 and charged with robbery, assaulting police, civil disorder, trespassing and disorderly conduct. According to prosecutors, they were among the crowd of rioters who assaulted police officers at the tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, where some of the most violent incidents took place. As Lamberth notes in his order, the duo’s trial has already been delayed multiple times — first in December 2023 and then again this summer. Their trial is currently set — perhaps somewhat ironically — for Jan. 6, 2025.

Their latest attempt to avoid facing a jury came earlier this month when defense attorney William Shipley filed a motion to continue “all matters” in the case — a move not dissimilar from what multiple Jan. 6 defendants have tried, with varying degrees of success.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/a-preposterous-mischaracterization-of-our-justice-system-jan-6-judge-slams-accused-rioters-attempt-to-delay-trial-again-ahead-of-trump-inauguration/