Hello from Judge Amit Mehta's virtual courtroom, where a status conference is getting started in the non-sedition Oath Keepers conspiracy case (Crowl et al.).
Info to listen in + court rules:
Toll Free Number: 877-848-7030
Access Code: 3218747
dcd.uscourts.gov/covid-19-emerg…
Info to listen in + court rules:
Toll Free Number: 877-848-7030
Access Code: 3218747
dcd.uscourts.gov/covid-19-emerg…
Meanwhile, in other Oath Keepers-related developments:
https://twitter.com/kenbensinger/status/1488936992494608386
Purpose of the hearing is to talk that as of now is set for April. Mehta says the jury office is not recommending sending out a questionnaire with jury summonses, says they've had a lot of problems with that system, rec'ing summoning ppl to come in first to fill it out
Mehta notes that asking prospective jurors to come to court twice could come with its own complications. He called the hearing to get thoughts/feedback from the lawyers
Mehta notes that they expect to call more jurors than normal for the first Oath Keepers trial on the calendar — typically they call 50-60 people, for this one he expects to call around 100
In even more other Oath Keepers-related news:
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1488937892462407681
Several defense lawyers are alluding to this filing, and stressing the need for an in-depth probe of potential jurors to screen for bias, also noting that SCOTUS has a pending case re: juror screening: oyez.org/cases/2021/20-…
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1488878276940636168
Mehta says he agrees with defense counsel that jury selection will raise "more challenging" questions than they see in most cases, is inclined to trust the jury office and not mail out a questionnaire
Mehta's plan is to have prospective jurors come in on April 5 to fill out questionnaire, which gives lawyers two weeks to review it in advance of jury selection. He asks lawyers to try to reach agreement on a proposed questionnaire and submit it to the judge to review by March 15
One of the defense attys notes the planned trial date, April 19, is Patriots' Day (but according to some quick googling it looks like it's April 18?) and suggests maybe they should push it back a day b/c there might be a risk of things happening that day, Mehta says TBD
There are several anniversaries in April that connect to acts of terrorism — the Boston Marathon bombing, which the defense atty today referenced, was April 15, 2013 (which was Patriots' Day); the Oklahoma City bombing was April 19, 1995
More trial procedure: During the pandemic, the DC federal courthouse's ceremonial courtroom (the largest one) could seat up to 35 people with social distancing. Mehta hopes they'll be able to increase capacity by April
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