An angry U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Sept. 7 refused to allow Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III to fire his defense attorneys and bring in new counsel three weeks before the start of his Jan. 6 seditious-conspiracy trial.
Mehta said no new attorney coming in this late could be ready for trial in the requested 90 days.
Based on the court’s own crowded calendar, a delay would mean Rhodes and four co-defendants in the case could not be tried until sometime in the summer of 2023.
“I have not had a whiff of any dissension, difficulty, conflict, what have you—between Mr Rhodes and his lawyers until yesterday,” Mehta said….