Thread by @UR_Ninja

Court has resumed in the second #J20 Trump inauguration protest trial being overseen by Judge Kimberley Knowles. So far, jurors haven’t come into the courtroom yet, as Knowles has heard arguments over defense requests for a mistrial and motions for judgement of acquittal

The defense early this morning renewed their request for a mistrial. Counsel stated they had received partial information in response to their subpoena to ‘Matt’ from Project Veritas but they don’t have time to properly research this information to inform their arguments at trial

Yesterday, attorneys for each defendant had argued to Judge Knowles as to why all charges should be dismissed. Today, under her obligation to view evidence “in the light most favorable to the govt,” Judge Knowles allowed all but a few of the charges to remain.
#J20 #J20trial

Judge Knowles ruled that even in “the light most favorable the government” there was insufficient evidence to charge two of the defendants, Seth Cadman and Cathseigh Webber, with the felony count of “inciting or urging to riot.” These 2 charges were dismissed; All others remain

Judge Knowles essentially endorsed many central concepts of the #J20 prosecution, noting that she agreed w/ the government’s assertion that simply not leaving the protest march when destruction took place was enough to have decided to join the criminal conspiracy. #J20 #J20trials

Judge Knowles also cited wearing a bandana, black clothing, and being a member of a protest group chat on Facebook messenger as potential evidence of guilt against a #J20 defendant not accused of any actual destructive acts

After Judge Knowles ruled on Motions for Judgement if Acquittal (MJOA) she heard from one of the defense attorneys, who was analyzing subpoena material received from ‘Matt’ from Project Veritas just this morning. It appears the defense won’t be calling ‘Matt’ to testify #J20

The defense complained that ‘Matt’ from Project Veritas didn’t fully comply with their subpoeana and that many of the texts and emails he provided to them were heavily redacted. Names of participants in text messages were redacted, for instance
#J20 #J20trials

The defense asked for a five minute break to go through the brand-new info from the Project Veritas subpoena. Here’s some of the texts by ‘Matt’ from Project Veritas read out loud by the defense that we were able to catch in open court:

#J20 #J20Trials

So far it seems that Judge Knowles won’t be granting a mistrial despite her acknowledgement of a Brady violation resulting from the protection hiding evidence. The defense insists they cannot give their clients a fair trial w/ new relevant information appearing as trial is ending

Other defense counsel also pointed out that in his testimony yesterday, Detective Pemberton admitted that the hard drive he received from Project Veritas had different files and folders labeled by dates, and all of these videos weren’t provided to the defense. #J20 #J20trials

Another defense attorney pointed out that all federal district courts require ‘Brady’ evidence to be shared with the defense before trial. In this instance, the Brady material came out *during* trial and the contested evidence had already been shown to the sitting jury
#J20

The defense also alleged a total lack of due diligence by @DCPoliceDept & @USAO_DC for not asking any follow-up questions after receiving evidence from a source with a clear bias against the defendants

#J20 #J20trials

Since Judge Knowles declined to declare a mistrial despite repeated defense requests to do so, the defense asked her to forbid any mention of the January 8 planning meeting by the prosecution. Knowles hasn’t ruled on this yet & reserved judgement.
#J20 #J20trials

Judge Knowles has said she will include in jury instructions language about how jurors should consider Project Veritas’ bias, and about how the defense sought information from them that they didn’t receive.
#J20 #J20trials

Jurors in the second #J20 trial have currently been dismissed until 2:30 PM as the prosecution, defense, and Judge Knowles negotiate jury instructions line-by-line. Closing arguments are expected to begin tomorrow.
#J20trials

The 3rd #J20 trial had been scheduled to begin yesterday, on May 29. Jury selection in the third trial was then delayed to today. Today, Chief Judge Morin delayed it until tomorrow. Morin is also expected to rule tomorrow on sanctions for the Brady violation he found last week

Judge Morin hinted last week that he may sanction @USAO_DC for the ‘Brady’ violation by throwing out any use of Project Veritas undercover video taken at the January 8 #J20 protest planning meeting after prosecutors were caught denying edits to the video unicornriot.ninja/2018/prosecuto…

The defense in the current #J20 trial rested their case before the lunch break today, without calling any witnesses. Jurors will return around 2:30 PM to hear jury instructors from Judge Knowles. Closing arguments will take place tomorrow

#J20trials

Judge Knowles is currently delivering a lengthy jury instruction to the jurors in the second #J20 trial. Before jurors arrived to begin receiving instructions, Judge Knowles heard arguments from the defense & prosecution about jury instructions.

Defense lawyers brought up another evidence-related complaint, alleging that the govt had emailed details about the new Project Veritas videos to counsel for other trial groups, but not lawyers for the current #J20 defendants. This includes an FBI document about Project Veritas

Judge Knowles has also been having problems with her computer and keeps claiming it was supposed to have been fixed
#J20
#J20Trials

Judge Knowles also ruled that she would not exclude use of the January 8 planning meeting video by the government in closing arguments, despite her own finding of the govt violating evidence rules by hiding edits made to the video
#J20 #J20trials

Before Judge Knowles began instructing jurors a few minutes ago, the defense read a stipulation to the jury. The stipulation contained language agreed upon by both the prosecution & defense in an attempt to address the evidence issues w Project Veritas & their operative ‘Matt’

The stipulation stated, in part, that ‘Matt’ was the source of the planning meeting video, & that if Matt had testified, he would have said that:
- he was working for Project Veritas & filmed several meetings
-He doesn’t remember any talk of violence or destruction at any meeting

Judge Knowles is still giving instructions to the jury. She just went over the details of the different conspiracy counts. One juror, in seat 5, appears to have been asleep for much of the instructions. We just watched this juror go 8 mins without opening her eyes
#J20 #J20trial

The same juror in the second #J20 trial is clearly falling asleep throughout jury instructions from Judge Knowles, which are still going on. We just watched the juror in seat 5 go another five minutes without opening her eyes, while visibly nodding off

Judge Knowles has ended court for the day in the 2nd #J20 trial, after finishing reading jury instructions to the jury. At the end of her instructions (and throughout the day) she incorrectly referred to Inauguration Day as “January 21st, 2017” (it was actually January 20th)

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