A Kansas man facing a felony and several misdemeanor charges in connection with the Capitol riot is asking the federal court to continue his upcoming trial date until after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
William Pope, of Topeka, said it would be a waste of time and resources to follow through with his prosecution because Trump has pledged to pardon Jan. 6 defendants when he takes office.
“In delivering both an electoral victory and popular vote majority, the American people gave President Trump a mandate to carry out the agenda he campaigned on, which includes ending the January 6 prosecutions and pardoning those who exercised First Amendment rights at the Capitol,” Pope said in a motion filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“In contrast, Vice President (Kamala) Harris campaigned on continuing the January 6 prosecutions, and her platform was rejected by the American people. This outcome and new mandate from the people justifies my trial being continued into the next administration.”
Pope is among a group of Jan. 6 defendants who have filed motions to continue their cases until next year, citing Trump’s repeated campaign pledge to pardon them. Trump has referred to the defendants as “political prisoners” and “hostages.”
Pope, who has two master’s degrees and is representing himself in his case, was arrested Feb. 12, 2021, on two felony counts — civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding — and six misdemeanors. The government filed a motion in August to dismiss the obstruction count after the Supreme Court issued a rule limiting the scope of the statute the Justice Department used to charge Jan. 6 defendants. In May, the government requested the dismissal of two of the misdemeanor charges.
Pope now faces five charges, and his jury trial is scheduled to start on Dec. 2.
If the trial isn’t continued, Pope said in his filing, “this Court will spend long hours deciding disagreements over motions in limine, motions to compel, the admissibility of exhibits, voir dire, jury instructions, and will then spend at least two weeks selecting jurors and hearing testimony during trial.”
“Regardless of what the jury decides, the end result will be that judicial economy will have been wasted because there will never be a sentencing, and I will be free.”
The government opposed Pope’s motion, noting that his case has been pending for more than 44 months.
“No continuance is warranted here,” it said in a motion filed Saturday. “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.”
The government said that similar motions filed by other Capitol riot defendants since Trump’s election have been rejected by the D.C. courts.
Pope responded to the government’s opposition on Saturday and included a photo of him standing beside Trump.
“The government’s claim that my ‘expectation of a pardon is mere speculation’ is completely false,” he said. “President Trump has repeatedly campaigned on issuing pardons for January 6 defendants on Day 1. I also heard this from President Trump directly when I met him last year.”
Even if his case goes to trial in December and he is convicted, Pope said, he may not even need a pardon. It’s more likely, he said, that the next attorney general will order that a motion be filed to dismiss his charges before his sentencing takes place.
“Such a fitting outcome,” he wrote, “would satisfy the will of the people and be in the interests of justice.”