PBP: P01135809 Trump Espionage, Coup, Conspiracy, Racketeering, Fraud & Obstruction Trial Thread

@Cascarino's Pizzeria please go back and read with both diablo and I said. When convicted, he will get time. Diablo thinks more time than I do, but we both think he'll get time.

 

I think the Fischer oral arguments should go here, even though they are more directly associated with the J6 stuff, or SCOTUS stuff in general. As noted above, two of the charges in DC for Trump could be removed based on the Fischer decision.

Background (from Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_v._United_States

On January 6, 2021, Joseph W. Fischer attended the Stop the Steal rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.. Prosecutors said that Fischer had a physical encounter with police at the Capitol, urged on rioters during the Capitol attack, and said that he wanted to go "to war" and take "democratic [C]ongress to the gallows". Fischer's attorneys said that Fischer entered the Capitol building at around 3:25 p.m., after it had already been breached and Congress had already recessed, and exited the building about four minutes later.[1][2]

The felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding has been used to charge over 300 individuals in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack, and has resulted in over 150 convictions and guilty pleas. Among those charged with the provision include former President Donald Trump. The criminal statute covering "whoever corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates or conceals a record, document or other object...or otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding" had been created by the 2002 Sarbanes–Oxley Act in response to the Enron scandal, when accountants shredding crucial documents did so without being in violation of any laws.[3][4]​

 

To nobody's surprise, Thomas has not recused himself, and is present in court after going AWOL yesterday.

 

From WaPo Fischer live feed

Justice Amy Coney Barrett just asked a question that suggests that the two election obstruction charges against former president Donald Trump could survive, even if the court agrees with challengers that the statute is not appropriate for the Jan. 6 rioters.​

Not surprised she would say that, but perhaps a legal mind can explain how a ruling in favor of Fischer would not apply to Trump.

 

WaPo Jury Selection live feed:

Trump wants to attend his son's graduation on May 17.
Trump: “It looks like the judge will not allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial.”

Trump sleeping in court again.

Merchan is deferring to potential jurors if they can be impartial.

 

WaPo live feed on Fischer

When Jeffrey T. Green said he doesn’t understand how the government can ask to expand the obstruction statute to “cover something that it has never covered before,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was unprecedented.

“We’ve never had a situation before … with people attempting to stop a proceeding violently,” she said.​

Bam!

 

WaPo live feed on Fischer

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in suggesting that the obstruction charge is being read too broadly and covers normal political protest, proposed thinking specifically about an oral argument like the one happening Tuesday.

“For all the protests that have occurred in this court, the Justice Department has not charged any serious offenses,” he said.​

And in a surprising turn of events, Alito minimized the insurrection into a "normal political protest."

 

May 17 is a Friday.

But, yeah, this judge has every Wednesday off as a day of reflection.

 

WaPo live feed Fischer

Justice Elena Kagan kicked off her tough questions for Joseph Fischer’s attorney, Jeffrey T. Green, by picking up something Clarence Thomas asked a few minutes earlier. Later, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked Green to respond more fully to a question from Justice Amy Coney Barrett.​

Links are broken, so not sure what the questions are. But likely something to do with the insurrection causing a disruption of an "official proceeding."

And on the other side..

Conservatives on the Supreme Court challenged Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar with a host of questions that echo right-wing media who argue that the Jan. 6 prosecutions are partisan. Among the cases raised: pro-Palestinian protesters blocking roads across the country, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol just before a vote, and protests against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation.​

 

WaPo live feed Fischer

Kavanaugh and Alito making the Trump argument:

Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Brett M. Kavanaugh questioned the government’s use of the “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge, and whether Congress meant to turn illegal and disruptive protesting, a misdemeanor punishable by only a year or less in prison, into a felony that carries a potential 20-year sentence.​

 

Actually, I said 15 to 30 days. Somebody (Parloff on Lawfare?) was saying 2 months. I highly doubt he will serve beyond the election, but somebody on Lawfare did mention that Merchan was tough on white-collar convictions, so maybe...

 

Six jurors sworn, including a foreman.

I'm learning something today. I always thought that once a jury got to deliberations, it picked its own foreperson.