WASHINGTON — Protection attorneys for five Proud Boys leaders intend to name former President Donald Trump to testify as a witness of their shoppers’ ongoing seditious conspiracy trial.
Nonetheless, it stays unclear if their effort will succeed.
Legal professionals for Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys organizer from Florida, unveiled a subpoena on Thursday that will compel Trump’s look in March and stated they’d search the Justice Division’s help with serving Trump.
“Donald Trump called on patriots to stop the steal,” stated Biggs’ lawyer Norm Pattis. “We’re calling on Donald Trump to take the stand.”
The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
It’s removed from sure that Trump will really take the stand — Biggs and his protection group must cope with the logistical difficulties of serving a former president and present presidential candidate. Trump may additionally transfer to quash the subpoena, resulting in extra litigation. The decide within the case, US District Decide Timothy Kelly, has not expressed a view on whether or not the subpoena ought to be permitted.
This isn’t the primary time a defendant charged in connection to the Jan. 6 riot has tried to place the previous president on the witness stand. Dustin Thompson, an Ohio man who was ultimately convicted on six counts associated to the riot, raised the thought of subpoenaing Trump in February 2022. The decide in that case dominated that Trump’s testimony was inadmissible and blocked Thompson’s lawyer from issuing a subpoena.
Biggs and his co-defendants — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — have been charged with seditious conspiracy, along with numerous different felonies, for allegedly plotting to make use of drive to cease the switch of presidential energy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Their trial comes after six members of the far-right Oath Keepers organization, together with founder Stewart Rhodes, had been discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy for their very own actions on Jan. 6.
Trump’s personal phrases main as much as the Jan. 6 riot have been incessantly invoked in the course of the first month of the trial. Prosecutors have sought to emphasise the Proud Boys’ affinity for Trump, presenting it as motivation for his or her alleged plot to cease the certification of the 2020 election.
Members of the protection group have additionally sought guilty Trump for the riot. It was Trump who “unleashed the mob” on Jan. 6, Sabino Jauregui, a lawyer for Tarrio, stated throughout opening statements in January.
