Lucas Denney will be back in court today at 3:30 p.m. for a second attempt at pleading guilty to the one-count indictment against him. The DOJ has estimated his recommended sentencing range as high as 71 months. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Denney briefly threw the court into disarray earlier this week when his lawyer unexpectedly said he wanted to plead guilty (to try to preempt a new indictment). Here's how pleas are supposed to play out, per Chief Judge Beryl Howell's standing order.
Lucas Denney's plea hearing should be starting any minute before Judge Moss. Defense and DOJ came up with a 3-point difference in offense level, which could add 20 months to the upper range.
Judge Moss asks Lucas Denney if he understands that, without a plea agreement in place, the DOJ could still bring additional charges against him even if he pleads guilty today.
Denney... does not appear to fully understand that. He's going into a breakout room w/ his attorneys.
Court is back in session and Lucas Denney says he understands. Judge Moss is trying to make sure he really does.
William Shipley jumps in, frustrated with Moss asking Denney if he *really* understands what he's about to do, says he's in no worse shape than if he'd gone to trial.
"I just want to make sure Mr. Denney understands he may still face significant charges related to the events on or around January 6," Judge Moss says.
William Shipley says there's a split among the circuits about whether Lucas Denney would be immune from further prosecution due to double jeopardy. He says it's a 5-3 split in favor of them, but admits the D.C. Circuit hasn't taken up the issue.
Shipley says they're willing to use the DOJ's proffer statement for the purposes of the plea hearing today, but they want to reserve the right to contest specific facts at sentencing. They don't want to sign it.
Shipley says they don't want to go through the statement of facts line by line because THEY DON'T HAVE DISCOVERY YET and he doesn't want Denney to agree to something that's not true. Says, correctly, that normally there would be an agreed upon statement of facts.
Shipley keeps cutting in to Judge Moss' questions of Denney. He says they do have video for the charged offense, which is assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.
Judge Moss asks if Lucas Denney assaulted police by swinging a long pole at officers?
"It was plastic, like PVC. Yes sir," Denney says.
Was the purpose to assault an officer?
"The purpose was to block the pepper spray," Denney says. "But I did hit an officer."
Judge Moss accepts Lucas Denney's plea of guilty to one felony count of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. Since he's pleaded guilty to a violent felony, he'll remain detained pending sentencing, which will happen on June 9 at 2 p.m.
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Also, uh, hello? Ilya Kaminksy? Famed Ukrainian-American poet with a famed poem about this exact situation? Hits a little too close to the mark, I guess.
A fun thing you guys don't know about me is that I double-majored in poetry.
Happening now(ish): Status conference for former Special Forces soldier Jeffrey McKellop. McKellop is heading toward a May 9 trial date on 7 felony counts. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Jeffrey McKellop's attorney, John C. Kiyonaga, says McKellop hasn't had access to his discovery for months. Says the staff at the D.C. Jail have been abusive toward his J6 clients and show an "institutional level of incompetence."
AUSA Mary Dohrmann says this is a conversation they had three months ago. Says McKellop's discovery materials were taken by the jail because he didn't abide by the rules of how discovery is supposed to be handled.
At 11 a.m. a motion hearing starts for Steve Bannon in his contempt of Congress case. Follow along for live coverage. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
The DOJ says Bannon's attorneys are going on a fishing expedition and requesting "voluminous" irrelevant records they aren't entitled to. Bannon has essentially said he wants to make the trial an indictment of the J6 committee. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Well, appears they aren't turning on the public line so... follow @ZoeTillman for live coverage.
Coming up at 2 p.m. we've got a plea hearing scheduled for Daniel Phipps, of Texas. Phipps wrote on FB: "Everyone talks about being a patriot until its time to do patriot sh*t." He was indicted for assaulting a DC Police officer outside the Capitol on January 6.
Lot of Zoom issues in the courts today, and this hearing is no exception. Daniel Phipps is going to have to call in with his phone.
Well, turns out it's not going to be a plea hearing because Daniel Phipps' attorney, David Bos, wants 30 days to send the DOJ a counter-offer. Bos says he doesn't anticipate the case going to trial.
Listening to the Kevin Loftus sentencing hearing. AUSA says Loftus bragged on a gaming app (didn't say which one) about being a "hero" for breaking the law on January 6 and that his name was in every major newspaper.
AUSA Emory Cole says he recognizes Kevin Loftus' military service, which included two deployments, but says that cuts both ways. Calls it an "affront" to all the men and women who've served for Loftus to say he was a hero for storming the Capitol.
After a long, impassioned statement from AUSA Emory Cole, Judge Friedrich says, that's fine, but why then did you let Kevin Loftus plead guilty to the least serious misdemeanor charge in the case?
The short version is the FBI didn't find any firearms in Loftus' house.