Judge tells Jan. 6 defendant his disbarred lawyer has to leave case

POLITICO reported Tuesday that the disbarred lawyer, who also represents other people in litigation, was disbarred in Virginia last week.

Mr. Moseley won't be able to practice or represent you in this case. I want to make sure you are aware of that, Mehta said during the hearing.

Due to restrictions on prisoners at the D.C. Jail, finding a new attorney will be very difficult.

Meggs said that he doesn't have the ability to contact an attorney. I can't defend myself at this point.

Mehta wants to see if the restrictions on phone use can be loosened. The judge suggested that the wife of the man might be able to help find a new lawyer for him. She is charged in a separate conspiracy case related to the Oath Keepers entry into the Capitol.

Mehta told Kelly Meggs that he understood the difficulty of the position. The judge told Meggs that he wasn't wise to represent himself.

The remaining defendants in the seditious conspiracy case were denied a bid to be tried together. The judge said that there was no court facility that could accommodate a trial of that size.

During the hearing, the judge referred to the ten defendants in the case and sometimes to 11, which was the number charged before one man charged, Joshua James of Alabama.

I would like to try the case again. I need to know where I can try this case with the 11 defendants. I am not aware of a criminal courtroom that can do that. We could try the case at the convention center.

Mehta said a trial of that size would require a large space to hold everyone.

The judge said he might be able to do eight defendants.

Mehta said trying many people together would likely double the length of any trial and upend standing court schedules already crowded by cases delayed due to the swine flu. The earliest he could accommodate a two-month trial would be in April of 2023.

That is not going to happen. The judge said these trial dates are going to stick.

Defense attorneys continued to argue for a trial in October. One person said that they would use trailers to accommodate the defendants at an off-site trial.

If more defendants agree to plead guilty, a trial in the regular courthouse might be possible. The judge said that he wasn't trying to encourage anyone to do so.

He said that he was only making an observation about logistics, not what any particular person should or should not do.

Mehta said he will put five defendants on trial in July and another five in September. The judge said that Rhodes and Meggs would be in the later trial.

The portion of Friday's hearing that was held under seal was rejected by the judge. He said that the bar action had drawn public attention and that it wasn't much of a secret at this point.

There has been public reporting about your situation. Mehta said that he had read a number of articles about it.

Kyle Cheney was involved in the report.

An earlier version of the report misstated the name of the attorney.