TOPEKA — A Topeka man who blocked officers on Jan. 6, 2021, during an attack on the U.S. Capitol building asked a federal court to delay his trial after Donald Trump won the presidency.
In a motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Will Pope asked the judge to delay his trial scheduled for Dec. 2 for three months. Trump promised while on the campaign trail to pardon those criminally charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and Pope is one of several defendants seeking changes to their cases in the wake of Trump’s victory.
“Ultimately, my jury was the entire American public, and they voted for a mandate to set me free,” Pope wrote in his motion.
He also expressed concern that a fair jury trial may not be possible. More than 90% of voters in Washington, D.C., voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the recent presidential election. Those voters “may find it especially difficult to look past those results to serve as fair jurors in my case,” Pope wrote.
He continued: “However, if there should be a jury trial in my case, it should happen after emotions have had time to cool.”
Federal prosecutors opposed any delay in Pope’s trial.
In a Saturday filing, prosecutors said it is in the public interest to issue a ”prompt and efficient administration of justice.”
“No continuance is warranted here,” prosecutors wrote. “At this time, the defendant’s expectation of a pardon is mere speculation, and the Court should proceed as it would in any other prosecution.”
In a response to prosecutors, which also was filed Saturday, Pope argued the government’s administration of justice is not in the public interest, “but a belligerent disregard for the will of the American people.”
“Ultimately,” he said, “I will get the same result with a trial or with no trial.”
Pope, who has represented himself in his case, was indicted by a grand jury alongside his brother on Jan. 8, 2021. They faced eight criminal charges, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and disorderly conduct in a capitol building.
According to an FBI agent’s investigation into the Pope brothers, which used information first reported by Kansas Reflector, a U.S. Capitol Police officer said Pope blocked law enforcement from closing doors as they were trying to prevent others from entering the building despite “repeated verbal orders to leave” and an attempt “to physically grab and push” Pope out.
But Pope “resisted by tensing up and refusing to move,” the agent wrote.
Pope, who ran for Topeka City Council in 2019, said he entered the Capitol “to express their concern about the direction of the nation,” wrote the FBI agent, whose name was redacted.
“Specifically, William Pope explained that questionable things happened during the election and that citizens deserved a full election audit,” the FBI agent wrote.
Pope and his brother were identified in social media posts and videos, and surveillance footage from inside the Capitol building. FBI agents and Topeka Police Department officers arrested Pope on Feb. 12, 2021, at his house in Topeka, according to court documents.
Since then, the case has dragged on.
In June, prosecutors admitted to a “drafting error” that stated Pope had assaulted an officer. He is not charged with any crimes associated with assaulting an officer. In response to the error, Pope accused prosecutors of misconduct and requested sanctions. He subsequently withdrew that request in a June 26 filing.
“I ask that the government in turn begin bestowing mercy on the hundreds of January 6 defendants whose lives are being crushed,” he wrote.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.