Jan. 6 rioter asks judge to postpone case due to 'expected scope of clemency' from Trump

06 November 2024

Former President Donald Trump campaigned on pardoning scores of participants in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Now that he's president-elect, one January 6 defendant is hoping the judge overseeing his case will put it on hold.

On Wednesday, Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney reported that Christopher Carnell — who entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — is now asking U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to "postpone aspects of his case" given Trump's promise to pardon insurrectionists en masse. Carnell was scheduled for a status hearing this Friday, but his attorney is asking Howell to move that hearing to December 13.

"On November 5, 2024, President-elect Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election. throughout his campaign, President-elect Trump made multiple clemency promises to the January 6 defendants, particularly to those who were nonviolent participants," attorney Marina Medvin wrote in her Wednesday filing submitted to the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

"Mr. Carnell, who was an 18 year-old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office," Medvin continued. "The Court has asked the parties to present status arguments on November 8, 2024, but as of today, Mr. Carnell is now awaiting further information from the Office of the President-elect regarding the timing and expected scope of clemency actions relevant to his case."

While Carnell's attorney explained that her defendant was "nonviolent," Trump has expressly said he would pardon January 6 defendants housed in the Washington, D.C. jail — nearly all of whom assaulted police officers during the siege of the Capitol. According to New York University's Just Security publication, 27 of the 29 inmates held in the D.C. jail are specifically being held on charges of attacking police. At least 19 have already been convicted, with 10 being found guilty by a jury and nine pleading guilty of their own volition.

"The January 6th DC inmates’ assaults on law enforcement include some of the most disturbing acts of violence at the US Capitol," Just Security's Tom Joscelyn, Fred Wertheimer and Norm Eisen wrote earlier this year. "One convicted felon helped lead the assault on police guarding the Capitol’s external security perimeter, an 'attack [that] paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.' Another inmate allegedly threw 'an explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers,' causing some of the officers to temporarily lose their hearing."

The Atlantic also reported that January 6 participants in the D.C. jail have since become "further radicalized" since they were first incarcerated. The publication interviewed Brandon Fellows, who spent 42 months in the D.C. jail alongside inmates like Julian Khater, who described himself as "the guy they accused of killing [Officer] Brian Sicknick." Fellows was also in the same cell block as Nathan DeGrave, who confessed to attacking a Capitol police officer, and Guy Reffitt, who brought a gun to the insurrection.

Fellows said he wishes "people did more on January 6" and that "it would have been better off if people actually would have actually been there for — like, more people would have actually been there for an insurrection." He also expressed hope that America would have another Civil War.

"If it's my time to die it's my time to die," Fellows told the Atlantic. "I prefer not to, but life is beautiful."

Click here to read Medvin's full filing on Carnell's behalf.

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