January 6 Defendants Imagine ‘Having Trump in Prison With Them’

The indictment of President Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith means that the 45th president, who will be arraigned tomorrow, is set to join more than 1,000 defendants — many of them awaiting trial — being prosecuted for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Two of the charges levied against Mr. Trump, under the aegis of a statute prohibiting obstruction of an official proceeding, have also been directed at hundreds of other defendants. The Sun spoke to one of those defendants, Jake Lang, who, awaiting trial, is being held in the District of Columbia Jail. Mr. Lang, who tells the Sun that he is a “MAGA libertarian,” has petitioned the Supreme Court to dismiss the obstruction charge. He argues that the charge — its origins lie in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 — was to crack down on financial crime, not a political protest. Now that Mr. Trump has been charged, Mr. Lang and, he tells the Sun, his fellow January 6 inmates see their fates as linked. He reflects that “the tables have turned. I needed Trump to get me out of jail, now he needs me to get him out of jail,” via his Supreme Court appeal. A decision on its future will be decided next month. Mr. Lang expanded that a “Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have written” this twist, reflecting that “truth is stranger than fiction.” He added, “If we win, he can win the presidency and exonerate me” — presumably via a pardon — and, “It’s a symbiotic relationship. It’s a team effort.” Even as he notes that he supports Mr. Trump, he shares that “guys in here are joking about having Trump here in prison with us.”The defendant warns Mr. Trump that “there is no justice in Washington, D.C., for conservatives” and that he can expect to get “railroaded” by both judges and juries in the heavily Democratic city. President Biden won the District of Columbia by more than 90 points in the 2020 presidential election. When assessing whether to make bail available, federal judges look at a defendant’s flight risk, the danger he poses to the community, and the existence of a violent criminal record. The Constitution ordains that “Excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed.” Mr. Smith did not ask that Mr. Trump be denied bail with respect to the Mar-a-Lago prosecution.The Sun spoke to a longtime litigator, Harvey Silverglate, who shares that it is “unthinkable” that a judge would deny Mr. Trump bail, adding that it is “impossible” for him to get lost in a crowd “if for no other reason than his haircut.” He explained that courts often use gargantuan backlogs as defenses against challenges on the basis of the Constitution’s promise of a speedy trial. Mr. Silverglate is also the attorney for one of Mr. Trump’s legal advisers, John Eastman. He tells the Sun that his client is certain that he is the indictment’s “Co-conspirator 2” and expressed frustration that the Department of Justice did not have the “common courtesy” to let him know that he would appear in the indictment. Mr. Smith writes that Co-Conspirator 2 “devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice-President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” Mr. Silvergate tells the Sun that it is “beyond me” why Mr. Eastman’s name was not used and promises that there is “no way” his client will cut a deal with Mr. Smith. The United States district court judge assigned to hear Mr. Trump’s case, Tanya Chutkan, is no stranger to this prosecutorial context. Appointed by President Obama, Judge Chutkan ruled two years ago that the January 6 committee could have access to records from Mr. Trump’s presidency. In allowing the committee that access, Judge Chutkan wrote, “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.” A veteran adjudicator of January 6 cases, she has said that those who participated in the 2021 riot “soiled and defaced the halls of the Capitol” and that “there have to be consequences” for what happened that day. Judge Chutkan told one rioter that the “people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.” On that head, she said, “I have my opinions” about who is culpable. She told another defendant that he “went to the Capitol in support of one man, not in support of our country.”

January 6 Defendants Imagine ‘Having Trump in Prison With Them’

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