January 6 Defendants apply to postpone trials, hoping for Trump's pardon

Donald Trump said he would pardon the January 6 rioters if he wins the presidential election.
Now that he has won, the defendants on January 6 are petitioning to postpone their trial.
Legal experts told BI that a judge was unlikely to grant the requests.

Hours after most news outlets announced Winner: Donald Trump After the presidential election, lawyers of the January 6 defendants began to file lawsuits in the hope of reaping the benefits.

On Wednesday morning, Christopher Carnell’s attorney who was found guilty of obstructing A request was made to postpone a status hearing scheduled for Friday for other charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, according to court documents.

Carnell asked to postpone the hearing until December because he is “currently awaiting further information from the Office of the President-Elect regarding the timing and expected scope of clemency actions related to his case.”

Carnell is one of those arrested following the Capitol riot and now hopes Trump will move on a word of forgiveness.

“President-elect Trump has made numerous promises of mercy to the January 6 defendants, especially non-violent participants,” the filing said. He also added: Carnell “When the new administration takes office, he expects to escape the criminal investigation he is currently facing.”

The judge denied Carnell’s request Wednesday. Carnell’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawyer of Jaimee Avery, another January 6 defendant, also requested that the sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday be postponed. Avery’s attorney is trying to delay this until after the presidential inauguration in January because of “the very real possibility that the next Attorney General will dismiss Ms. Avery’s case, or at least handle it very differently.” It would therefore be “fundamentally unfair” for Avery to be sentenced to prison this week.

“Furthermore, it would create great inequality for Ms. Avery to spend even one day in prison, where the man who played a key role in organizing and inciting the events of January 6 will now never face the consequences of his role in the event.” A footnote in the filing reads:

Avery’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Ministry of Justice’s investigations and trials regarding January 6 continue. As of November, the Justice Department said more than 1,532 people had been charged, including 571 people accused of assaulting or obstructing police.

Throughout his campaign, Trump described the defendants jailed on January 6 as “political prisoners” who were “broken into” the federal building by the Capitol Police.

Despite objections from some prominent Republicans former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump, a target of the rioters, said he suggested he would pardon most of the defendants except those who were “bad and evil.” Time In April.

Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists in July, Trump said he would “absolutely” pardon the rioters.

“If they are innocent, I will forgive them,” he said. “They were sentenced under a very strict system.”

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata, known for her role in the New York sex trafficking investigation into R. Kelly, told Business Insider that it’s unlikely a judge would change her schedule with the promise of a potential pardon.

“In general, in judicial proceedings, you don’t focus on what political decisions will or won’t be made in the future,” Shihata said. “And so I don’t know if a judge could be persuaded to change his schedule accordingly.”

David Shapiro, director of inspections and oversight at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former prosecutor, told Business Insider that most defense attorneys will likely take a “wait-and-see” approach to see if Trump actually starts granting clemency to defendants .

“If he does something like that to a few defendants initially, yes, you’ll see a trend,” Shapiro said.

Related stories