January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[emailking]

Trump’s DC Judge Signals Delay Likely in Jan. 6 Trial by Scheduling a Different Case for April
With progress toward trial in the Washington, DC election-subversion case against former President Donald Trump on pause, the judge overseeing the case has added a different trial to her spring calendar

The federal judge presiding over the Washington, D.C. election-subversion case against Donald Trump has scheduled a different case for trial in her courtroom this spring, signaling potential delays in the trial of the former president.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday entered an order scheduling the trial of alleged Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack participant Anthony Mastanduno to begin on April, 2, 2024. Mastanduno has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump is charged with four federal felonies in the case alleging he obstructed the 2020 presidential election and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial is scheduled to begin on March 4.

https://themessenger.com/politics/trump-chutkan-trial-date-jack-smith-washington-dc-election-case

So that's it? Are Republican judges going to delay Trump's trials until after the election and nobody can do anything about it?

No it will probably be in the May - June timeframe.

[emailking]

^ if and may are doing a lot of work there. Most legal experts think it will happen before the election.

[emailking]

Today could be that day we get the circuit immunity & DJ decision!

[emailking]

Today could be that day we get the circuit immunity & DJ decision!

Yes, we could but nothing thus far. Even if the Circuit Court of Appeals does rule again Trump he then can ask for a Full Appeal Hearing before the entire Court or appeal directly to the SCOTUS which he certainly will do if it goes against him.

Both of those can be dispensed with quickly. SCOTUS is more of a risk because who knows what they will do but 9th Circuit could give them 5 days to get a stay and if one isn't granted (very possible) it goes back to Chutkan which would at least get things back on track, even while he still appeals en banc or to SCOTUS.

[emailking]

Harry Litman has said they did everything by the book and the procedures they've established for working a case from the bottom up and that's how long it took, and that maybe you can argue that they should have changed the playbook under the circumstances but they did it the way they do it.

[emailking]

If the latter it really sucks since many opined the reason SCOTUS turned down Smith to take it immediately was due to the Circuit putting out such an expedited review schedule.

[emailking]

The DC Circ. norm is to drop opinions on Tuesdays & Fridays.

Today could be the day!

[emailking]

Also, the case dropping off the calendar means they know it's not happening March 4, not that it is happening before the election, or even in April.

[emailking]

The only holdup right now is the DC Circuit appeals, right?

So say they finally get their act together and rule Trump doesn't have immunity - then he would appeal to Supreme Court, correct? And then the only holdup then is waiting for SC to rule? Do I have this correct?

Yes

So then the only question is how long SC takes to decide whether to take it up or not and if they do, how long it takes for a decision

If the Circuit removes the stay then the case can go ahead while he appeals. A scenario is they give him 5 days (for example) to get a stay en banc or from SCOTUS and if he doesn't get one the case proceeds. It's an if but entirely possible.

[emailking]

Most likely Trump will get away with everything and never ever get trialed. This is unbelievably sad.

No.

[emailking]

Yeah she doesn't know any more than the rest of us as to when she gets the case back. Sounds like a worse case assessment to me.

[emailking]

Dude literally only has 6 days to get a stay. En banc is not going to grant it. SCOTUS might but they need *5* votes to grant a stay (only 4 to accept the case). Trial could be back on just 2 months delayed.

[emailking]

While they "delay" could have indicated there was disagreement from Henderson, there either wasn't or they convinced her to get on board. More likely they just needed a few weeks to get things rock solid to give the greatest chance at avoiding SCOTUS review and have done their best to get things back on track. The latter was often put forward as possibility but overshadowed by the scarier possibility that there would be a split decision on the scope which could have really derailed things.

[emailking]

They will than ask for a postponement until after the election. Once they ask for that, it goes to appeals court than possibly the Supreme Court

No it doesn't. Or at least, that doesn't delay the trial while they file and appeal some suit that it should be postponed.

[emailking]

There have been cases postponed to avoid the appearance of "election interference"

By a court or the Justice Department? They can delay bringing a case because of prosecutorial discretion but once they bring the case all they can do is ask it be postponed. It's going to be up to Chutkan. (Or conceivably if he can get a higher court to delay it, but it's a meritless suit.)

[emailking]

If the Supreme Court rules that Trump isn't immune, that has nothing to do with election interference and thus a separate case for the court to hear

It's not a case he's privileged to have heard before the trial starts.

It's not an argument Chutkan has to bother with beyond denying the motion.

[emailking]

If the Supreme Court rules that Trump isn't immune, that has nothing to do with election interference and thus a separate case for the court to hear

It's not a case he's privileged to have heard before the trial starts.

It's not an argument Chutkan has to bother with beyond denying the motion.

If Chutkan denies the motion, they appeal it to the court of appeals.

Why don't you understand?

He can appeal it, but only after the trial. It's not a privileged motion.

[emailking]

F***ing finally! Why did this take so long?

I'm crossing my fingers every day that emailking is prescient.

Hopefully the Supreme Court now quickly throws out Trump's bogus arguments and the trial can finally get started. It's about time.

Am I wrong to assume that the full DC Circuit will definitely not agree to hear the case in full? So the only further (big) delay will be if SCOTUS take it's time with this?

The consensus of legal experts is that they're unlikely to take it. And unless he gets a stay from SCOTUS he can't use an en banc appeal to delay the trial start, because they removed the automatic stay (effective in 6 days).

[emailking]

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1755044971541893247

^ very possible scenario!

[emailking]

It could mean that, or that they have 4 votes to take the case but not 5 votes which is needed for the stay.

[emailking]

Hopefully it makes them realize they don't want another Trump case on their plate and quickly deny cert (though likely will at least give them time give filings on the stay).

[emailking]

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro ordered to report to prison

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to President Donald Trump who was convicted of contempt of Congress, has been ordered to report to prison after a judge denied Navarro’s effort to stay out of prison while he appeals the conviction.

Navarro was sentenced by Judge Amit Mehta in late January to four months behind bars after a jury in Washington, DC, found him guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena related to the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“Defendant’s request for release pending appeal is denied,” Mehta wrote in his ruling Thursday. “Unless this Order is stayed or vacated by the D.C. Circuit, Defendant shall report to the designated Bureau of Prisons facility on the date ordered by the BOP.”

CNN has reached out to Navarro’s lawyer for comment.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/08/politics/peter-navarro-prison/index.html

[emailking]

There will likely be ad administrative stay granted by Roberts that will last a few weeks (ostensibly to give Smith time to respond, though he's probably ready regardless). That doesn't mean they will grant cert or grant the stay of the trial if they do grant cert. So just keep that in mind next week when you hear a stay has been granted.

[emailking]

Trump says in this filing that it would violate the first amendment rights of the voters if the case is not stayed.

[emailking]

It's something about he won't be able to campaign (he doesn't on weekdays anyway) so they won't be able to hear his voice (like he doesn't have TS) and perspective to inform their decision.